Review by Barb & Ron Kroll

Travel Book Title:

Signspotting 2 (Lonely Planet)
ISBN 978-1741791822

Theme:

Laugh at funny fractured English signs from around the world, with humorous comments by Doug Lansky.

Sample Items:

Joyride Driving School (Kisumu, Kenya). George Bush Center for Intelligence (Langley, Virginia). Curry Prevention Services (Oregon). Ha Ha Cemetery (New Brunswick, Canada). Molde Bakeri (Norway). Hazyview Eyecare (South Africa).

Notable Elements:

In his introduction, Doug Lansky provides interesting trivia about the English language. For example, 66 per cent of the world speaks English as their first, second or third language. India has the world's largest English-speaking population. China has at least four times as many English-speakers as Britain. With 133 regional English dialects and 12 official pidgin English languages, it's not surprising that signs contain language errors.

Tone / Style:

A picture says a 1,000 words. A message on a funny sign creates a 1,000 laughs.

Signspotting 2 contains 147 pages of sign photos, an introduction and six stories from sign-spotters.

Visuals:

The color sign photos were selected from 20,000 images, submitted by travelers around the world.

Author:

Doug Lansky

Claim to fame:

A collector of images of funny signs, Doug Lansky compiled the original Signspotting book.

 
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