Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World Hardcover – September 16, 2014

Take a Fika and enjoy the Gezellig. This little (8 inch x 9 inch) hard back coffee table book is a delightful little gem. Beautifully illustrated and intriguingly informative, learn scores of words from several languages that have not exact English equivalent. A must-have for any bibliophile.

I met Lost in Translation in my dentist's waiting room. This isn't a "read it front to back" book. It's a collection of words, in many languages, that make it easy to say, "yeah, wish I could use that word, because it's just how I feel sometimes." It offers snacks of words, a word here, a word there. For example, just now I just opened the book to a random page. There's "Goya". "Goya is the realm of make-believe, of amazing stories that make you forget what you're doing, and where you are - stories that give you wings and send you soaring across mountain ranges that you never knew existed, or voyaging across oceans even though you don't know how to sail. URDU/noun"Not a word you might use in everyday conversation unless you speak Urdu (in Pakistan and parts of India), but a nice little word snack.The artwork and overall presentation is well done, with watercolor illustrations.When my dentist closed his practice, it was time to buy this book. And I did.(Excerpt used without the author's permission)

The text is well done and art is beautiful. I plan to enjoy it to the fullest and then share it with my daughters. This is too nice to keep to myself.

Of course, as a writer, I love language--and I'm always looking for that perfect word to reflect an emotion or action. This brief book is filled with perfect words collected from around the globe. It's also a little peek into the soul of different cultures.While it's generally agreed that English has the most words (according to Bill Bryson's book 'Mother Tongue', English has about 200,000 words in common use, German 184,000 and French 100,000), sometimes it's the magic of that one word that can suddenly shift your perspective to understand something in a truly extraordinary way. And sometimes it's not about being raised to the sublime, but rather about the efficiency of economy. Why use 10 words when you can use one?Every word is included with a definition and charming illustration by the author. The facing page reiterates the word and definition again, with a short commentary.Similar to The Book of Awesome, this book will help lift your spirits as it reminds you of the uniqueness of being human.My favorite word? Mangata. The road-like reflection of the moon in the water.

Sent this anonymously to my polyglot sister and she figured out right away it was me who sent it and she immediately started sending me the most interesting entries in the book. She had a lot of fun with it and apparently it makes a great gift!

I bought several to give as gifts, in addition to one for myself. This book is lovely, charming, funny and profound. Every home should have (at least) one! I hope these amazing words go into circulation around the world.

The whole book only takes about 20 minutes to read through. Nice and interesting but gives no pronunciation of the words or context in how they might be used in a sentence. No real depth. Fun book to maybe leave on coffee table for a bit or in a guest bathroom.

This will make a great gift for anyone who loves language and whimsy.