Last night after The Biggest Loser, my cat and I cozied up to Mortal Syntax: 101 Language Choices That Will Get You Clobbered by the Grammar Snobs—Even if You’re Right, by June Casagrande, who is reading tonight at Powell’s.

Casagrande (or "the beautiful princess," as she calls herself in her intro) explains that her quest is to compile a "list of the language issues creating the most confusion for nice people and thereby creating fodder for the grammar snobs." She provides 101 usages that she believes people find confusing, and evaluates whether each usage is actually correct, incorrect, or just inelegant.

The book is fundamentally defensive: It presupposes the existence of a hostile readership, anger grammar nerds with a low tolerance for adverb abuse who won't hesitate to inform you if you effed up an "ly." Now, Casagrande writes a grammar column, and she has these readers. They write mean letters to her about participles. They do not trouble most of the rest of us. (Though I would not be surprised if they cropped up in the comments of this blog post.)

Casgrande makes much of what a relatable everywoman she is (jokey, self-deprecating, you know the drill), and the book is wisely designed to be read in short bits. It's palatable, but I think the fundamental premise really misgauges what people want out of a book about grammar. If I'm going to read such a thing at all (and I totally will), it's because I'm interested in how language works and how to use it correctly, not because I want to win grammar fights. (Besides, Courtney always wins those anyway.) If you can go all Lynne Truss and make it funny, all the better—but simply providing the tools to say "I told you so" just isn't compelling enough.

Here are some of her problem usages, in case anyone wants to give it a go:

I feel bad.

Johnny Damon shouldn't have went to New York.

Infighting among experts is a reoccuring phenomenon.

I'm anxious to get started.

This term creates a myriad of problems.

Casgrade reads tonight at the Powell's on Burnside, 1005 W Burnside, 7:30 pm