Could Have Bean so Much Butter

Book Review: Just My Typo: From Sinning with the Choir to the Untied States by Drummond Moir

I love typos. And misprints, and bad translations, and misused words (malapropisms). And there are plenty of them, even in the digital age. I have some great ones in my spam folder.

With such a bountiful supply of source material how did Just My Typo end up so ... not funny? Why repeat an instance of the same typo in a different context? Why choose examples that show up regularly on Facebook? Why choose examples that you have to explain?

Compiling editor Drummond Moir sets himself the goal of limiting his examples to errors involving a single character. Thankfully he frequently ventures beyond that self-imposed boundary, as only a few of the lengthier samples merit a grin. Maybe I missed the mark -- since he actually IS an editor, maybe Just My Typo isn't meant to be funny, but rather instrucutive. As in: "The importance of proofreading."

Maybe I'm just too jaded, having read some really funny compilations. There are much better collections out there: Jay Leno's Headlines series, Rich Hall's Sniglets (yes, I know those are not technically typos). The classic compilation of kids' typos is absolutely H. Allen Smith's Don't Get Perconel with a Chicken. For hilarious translation malapropisms try engrish(dot)com - I laughed until tears came.

Frankly, I was disappointed. I expected more than recycled autocorrect jokes and old chestnuts. But then I suppose one should expect the occasional disappointment in one's reeding.