Better Than Great: A Plenitudinous Compendium of Wallopingly Fresh Superlatives

Arthur Plotnik

Aug 2012 · Blackstone Audio Inc. · Narrated by Richard Waterhouse

About this audiobook

A veritable ‘TKO of terminology,’ Better Than Great is the essential guide for describing the extraordinary —the must-have reference for anyone wishing to rise above tired superlatives. Deft praise encourages others to feel as we do, share our enthusiasms. It rewards deserving objects of admiration. It persuades people to take certain actions. It sells things. Sadly, in this ‘age of awesome,’ our words and phrases of acclaim are exhausted, all but impotent. Even so, we find ourselves defaulting to such habitual choices as ‘good,’ ‘great,’ and ‘terrific,’ or stock synonyms that tumble out of a thesaurus—‘superb,’ ‘marvelous,’ ‘outstanding,’ and the like. The piling on of intensifiers such as ‘totally’ only makes matters worse, while negative modifiers (‘incredible,’ ‘unreal’) render our common parlance nearly tragic. Until now. Not to mince words, wunderkind of word-wonks Arthur Plotnik is proffering a well-knit wellspring of worthy and wondrous words to rescue our worn-down usage. Plotnik is both hella and hecka up to the task of rescuing the English superlative, offering readers the chance never to be at a loss for words of praise and acclamation!

About the author

Arthur Plotnik is a versatile author with a distinguished background in editing and publishing. Two of his works have been featured as Book-of-the-Month Club selections: The Elements of Editing and The Elements of Expression. He has written scores of magazine articles and columns, nonfiction books, short stories, and poems. His work has appeared in publications ranging from Playboy to the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.

Richard Waterhouse is an actor, teacher, director, and producer who is featured in the Hallmark Christmas classic Moonlight and Mistletoe and the independent feature Karl Rove, I Love You. He lives with his partner in Newbury, Vermont.