Ammon Shea

The Phone Book: The Curious History of the Book That Everyone Uses But No One Reads

by Ammon Shea

Read Ammon Shea's blogs and other content on the Penguin Community.

A surprising, lively, and rich history of that ubiquitous doorstop that most of us take for granted.

Ammon Shea is not your typical thirtysomething...

Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages

by Ammon Shea

An obsessive word lover's account of reading the entire Oxford English Dictionary, hailed as "the Super Size Me of lexicography."

"I'm reading the OED so you don't have to," says Ammon Shea on his slightly masochistic...

Insulting English

by Peter Novobatzky & Ammon Shea

At last, a compendium of ingeniously insulting words for every occasion.

For anyone who's been stymied by the level of sloth, bad looks and low intelligence of his fellow man (and woman), help is on the way....