I enjoyed a few conversations about personal language and travel experiences that were sparked by reading the book. Other than that I didn't care for it. I found it sloppy, repetitive, superficial, unengaging, and bizarre in some of its metaphors and casual causal implications.

It is true that memorizing vocabulary lists is not the same as speaking a language; similarly, listing out questions and people with whom you've talked is not the same as writing a book. ( )

Painfully trite. Erard likes the sound of his own voice—or the look of his own typing. Chapters are wasted repeating how language proficiency cannot be encoded in one binary variable. You don't fucking say? Erard doesn't even offer any sort of solution here: instead, he just yammers on about it.

He repeatedly draws bizarrely definite conclusions not borne out by the data he presents. I use the word "data" almost mockingly here, since it's mostly a collection of anecdotes. My favourite, stated without source, of course: "drinking sage tea increases one's recall of words modestly, as does the odor of rosemary." Yes, no doubt, as does the sacrificing of goats and young virgins, but only when Mars is in retrograde. Related: Erard wastes a page on a discussion of phrenology, of all things. He also drones on about the Geschwind-Galaburda hypothesis, without mentioning—or perhaps even without being aware—that it's a highly contested hypothesis at best, with no conclusive evidence in its favour.

The book jacket claims Erard has a master's degree in linguistics, which makes the error-ridden neurolinguistic chapters all the more painful. In general, Erard appears to have no interest in factual truth, and only a vague understanding of the link between cause and effect.

His implied assertion that the New Testament was written in Latin doesn't help matters, nor does the chapter dedicated to "statistics" of a self-reported language ability survey (which he treats as gospel, of course!).

Finally, I'll share this marvel (page 96, should you be unfortunate enough to hold the book in your hands): "[...standing on the shoulders of giants...] Some scientists have suggested that in order to comprehend a metaphor, you have to know that someone intends a meaning other than a literal reference to giants' shoulders." I cannot figure out whether Erard is unacquainted with the meaning of the word "metaphor," or whether he thinks his readers are not, or whether he is mocking "some scientists" here. None of those seem particularly good reasons to include this idiotic sentence.

The COVID-19 pandemic made us all do crazy things. One of mine was sticking with this book till the end. ( )

Babel No More was quite illuminating, and apart from a few fuzzy flaws, I enjoyed it. It seems to me that the book's condensed thesis wouldn't be at all groundbreaking and to most people should reflect, in fact, common sense: Polyglots are hardwired to absorb different linguistic systems, but they're also forged out of sheer hard work and determination.

Perhaps that's why this book received such a low GR score -- it's not a very original theory to expound.

Overall, I thought Erard's approach was original. Babel No More is a travel narrative; it takes readers to faraway lands, from continent to continent, in search of groups of people who speak >2, >6, >11 languages. I include these three categories of language quantities because even Erard isn't quite sure what "poly" describes -- should it be complete, native-like, fluent mastery in a handful key languages, or some loose working control in dozens? This question fuels much of the book. Another question that strings along is the classic -- whether nature or nurture creates polyglots.

All in all, Erard doesn't come to a grandiose, breathtaking conclusion in answering any of these questions. His writing isn't grandiose or breathtaking either, for that fact. And his accumulation of survey statistics made me more than a little doubtful -- and I'm no statistician.

But the breadth of his research and the vastness of this specific topic kept me glued to the page. Definitely going to be trying to catch up to these polyglots now that I know all their secrets. ( )

Interesting but Esoteric

I picked this up because I'm working on becoming bilingual, and was intrigued by the title and topic. The author is on a search to diagnose polyglots and draw conclusions about the nature of them. The book has interesting parts describing, unearthing, and in some cases exposing overstated claims of multiple languages mastery. The journey has its moments, but bogs down, especially in the latter part of the book. To his credit the author approaches his investigation in an academic way, but that may cause the casual reader to lose interest as the book progresses. At first I felt I was gaining useful insight, but ultimately I'm not sure I should have invested the time. ( )

When I near my marathon season, I like to read inspiring books by and about marathoners and ultramarathoners. In the same vein, as I'm trying to teach myself a new language (Hebrew) I'm going to be picking up some language books for motivation. First on the pile is this gem, which does not actually discuss the mechanics of language, but instead is a detective story with suprisingly revealing curios (hyperpolyglots are mostly male, left-handed and gay; impressionists are superior musically; children mispronounce new words because the words haven't found a place in the brain to "settle"; and much more) and a fascinating loop, where the writer finds himself back where he started to find answers to certain questions he asked in the beginning. He spends much time looking for people who might have surfaced earlier and quicker in his search, which makes me wonder what would have happened had he found immediately what he was looking for. The book may have taken on a different personality and direction. In either event, it was an excellent read. On to books with more mechanics. I've got languages to learn. ( )