Manual

I was having the Penguin Writer's Manual as my bedtime reading recently.

No, it could hardly be called interesting. I bought it some months ago in a sale, and, as a habit, I tried not to have a book bought but left untouched.

Nonetheless, I do learn some small things here and there. The content of this 320-page volume is no doubt an expanded version of the gold standard text in the field of English writing: The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. In fact, it seems unbelievable that the original scribble of William Strunk was merely 43 pages - and it summarized the usage of written English better than any of its long-winded successors (alas, including the latest edition of this very book).

And it reminds me of the first edition of Rubenstein and Wayne's Lecture Notes on Clinical Medicine.

PS. For some years, The Elements was a compulsory text for first year university students (of all faculties) over the other side of the Victoria harbour. Whoever decided to take it away from the curriculum should inherit the position of Prometheus - I mean the position on that rock of Caucasus.