"Dreyer's English" -- a great style book

I've just come across a book called Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by one Benjamin Dreyer, who is the chief copy editor at Random House.


It's a hoot. First, he knows his stuff and profoundly understands writers. Secondly, he is on the side of traditional copy-editing, but he knows where and how to pick his battles, and when to bow to common usage. Third, he's funny.


To illustrate this, let me quote a section on his treatise on ending sentences with prepositions. It's called, unsurprisingly, "The Celebrated Ending-a-Sentence-with-a-Preposition Story":

 

I was always taught that a preposition wasn’t a good thing to end a sentence with.
I started reading it and liked the part about going through each sentence 657 times.
I did just that after a kindle review talked about the SPaG issues on my released novel so now it’s off to a professional edit.
What I like about the book is it gives a human touch to Element of Style

 

I agree. I think that Ben Dreyer and E. B. White would have gotten along famously.

 

Thank you. I'll check it out when I find a copy that doesn't cost a silly amount of shipping to get to me.