Top 10 Lists

Lat week I posted a list of 10 most misused words in the English language and the response from readers was fascinating.  Many of you hold strong opinions on how words are used – more than I expected.

I thought I’d follow up last weeks list with a new one.  Here’s a list of 10 books that have inspired vociferous arguments. The titles range from the Bible to The Catcher in the Rye and O.J. Simpson’s confession: If I did It.

1. The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
3. The Book of Mormon
4. The Catcher in the Rye
5. The God Delusion
6. If I Did It: Confessions of a Killer
7. The Prince
8. The Communist Manifesto
9. The Q’uran
10. The Bible

One detail I found interesting in this list was that The Da Vinci Code almost made its way on to the list. I don’t see how fictional tripe could be controversial, but I guess it is. But it was beat out by the book that it copied most of its ideas from: The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. Unlike The Da Vinci Code, this other book makes a claim of being nonfiction.

What do you think of the books on the list?

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I’ve just come across a Top 10 list site called ListVerse. A few months back Andrew Pepper posted a list of 10 misused English words. I don’t completely agree with the list but it is still worth reading.

1. Refute
2. Instant
3. Enormity
4. Less
5. Chronic
6. Literally
7. Panacea
8. Disinterested
9. Decimate
   and
10. Ultimate

While I’m glad that decimate made the list (it means kill 10%, not everyone), there’s at least one word that I don’t believe should be listed: literally.

There’s an ongoing discussion over whether it is correct to use the word the way it sounds or of it is okay for it to be commonly misused. For example, some would object to “steam was literally coming out if his ears”. But I would not. Most uses of the word “literally” are deliberate exaggerations, and thus they are not meant to be taken literally.

What do you think of the list? Are there any words that you feel should have been included?