Go to Goodreads or Amazon. Check out for yourself. Before you go on reading.

This morning I came across a book that sounded interesting to me as a linguist, but not only. How Language Began: The Story of How We Learned to Speak (English Edition) eBook : W. Harrow, James: Amazon.de: Kindle-Shop.

I was a little surprised by the low price (Euro 2,99) as I had just looked at a book by the renowned linguist Stephen C. Levinson, The Interaction Machine that cost almost 10 times as much (Euro 26,22). So I downloaded a sample, first, then the whole book. (What the heck, 2,99.)

I looked for the table of contents, as that’s the first thing I usually do. There was none. Then I read a few pages – no footnotes, no references. I browsed through the whole book. No references whatsoever and no bibliography let alone an index at the end of the book.

I started researching the author. Nothing on the internet, only a short text on Amazon with the image of a friendly looking fellow. You would have thought that someone who tackles those questions as a linguist and historian would have his own wikipedia entry.

Then I started searching for other books written by the ‘author’. Check it out. There is a list of 50 books on two pages. I checked (almost all) the dates of publication. All books were published in 2025.

Needless to say, I gave the book back even if ‘only’ Euro 2,99.

Books by James W. Harrow (Author of The Dragon’s Archipelago)

(to be continued…I just don’t know how yet)