Flying by the Seat of Your Pants: Surprising Origins of Everyday Expressions Paperback – January 4, 2011

This is a great book for anyone who likes language and is interested in finding out what certain phrases mean. Many of the phrases are familiar, but you may not know how they came about.

This is a really cute little book, but a word of warning to those of you who prefer to learn about the idiomatic sayings of American English: this book is more for those who are interested in British English. There are a few sayings which cross over into both British and American English, but it is predominantly British. Still, it's a cute read for a short flight.

I love language. I love slang and colloquialisms, so it's no surprise that I looked forward to reading this book with a great deal of anticipation.Flying by the Seat of Your Pants is a good, solid gathering of everyday expressions for a beginner. For someone who's more conversant with expressions and their origins, there's not going to be much that's new although it may be fun to touch base again with old favorites and realize that your memory's still in good shape.I do have one word of warning for potential readers. The author, Harry Oliver, is British; therefore, many of these everyday expressions have their origins in the UK. For Anglophiles like me, this is no problem, but for those who aren't interested in how folks across the pond speak, they may want to give this compilation a miss. (On the other hand, why not broaden your knowledge a bit?)

We have this in our dining room and read one of the explanations at dinner. The kids enjoy reading the origins of phrases and they often spark interesting conversations.

Although interesting, the material presented gives the impression that he made up some of it, or heard it on the street. I expected a much more scholarly treatment. As it is, I can't rely on the material in the book, and certainly will not quote anything in it.

My native Spanish speaker friend, fluent in English, wants to learn some slang, to speak more creatively and less formally in her second language. She is having a lot of fun with this book!

Flying by the Seat of Your Pants was a gift given to my mother. I have not heard from her if she has even read it yet. The order it was a part of came in good time and all three book were in excellent condition.

When ordering this, I was not aware that this book was written by a British author. So all of the "everyday expressions" will not be familiar to you even AFTER reading the description of these obscure British sayings. Many of the other ones will be familiar to you, however, as we still use them. All in all, an interesting book.