Words And Rules: The Ingredients of Language - by Steven Pinker

This is a serious book and not an easy read. There is lots of detail from an author who really knows his subject. Although there were long stretches of detailed discussion that I found hard, I just did a bit of speed-reading. Overall, the effort of getting through the book was well worth it. I learned a lot. Lots of questions were answered and there were new questions posed and answered too. I will never thing about language quite the same. To give an example: I went to the opticians to get new lenses in my glasses; I told someone that I was going there to get them “relensed”. I am sure that this word does not exist, but I could create it without any effort [thinking] and be quite sure that the listener would understand.

If you have an interest in language and how it works, this book is a must read.