Quirky Qwerty: the story of the keyboard @ your fingertips

By Torbjorn Lundmark, Sydney: UNSW Press, 2002, 172 pages, hardback, $19.95. Reviewed by Amanda Muller in the December 2002 issue.

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This is a good book for those seeking answers to questions such as who invented the spaces between words, how the keyboard was invented, and why the dollar sign '$' now has one line instead of two down the middle. The biggest drawback is the lack of a conventional index. However, I have still managed to refer to this book for information three times in the last fortnight -- definitely a good sign. Despite this, my initial impression of the book was unfavourable. One of the first things I look for in a non-fiction book is an index, and thereafter the ability to keep the pages open easily. It is a narrow book and reminds me of a cocktail mixing guide, perhaps a fair warning of what was to follow. While I write this review, two bulldog clamps are holding the astoundingly tight binding of the book open. I believe the weight of width would have helped.

Quirky Qwerty begins by giving an overview of the development of the basic western keyboard. Thereafter, a concise historical summary of some writing systems is provided. These include Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese logographs, Semitic consonant graphs, Greek direction changes, Roman additions, and the formation of lower and upper cases. Syllabic or featural writing systems are not included, but this is because the main focus is placed on the basic western keyboard and the development of the written characters it represents. The only odd element in this tightly written book is the inclusion of the Chinese writing system which did not contribute significantly to the Latin alphabet and merely serves as an example of pictographic writing which is still in use today. This section closes with an historical overview of diacritics, punctuation and symbols.

In the next section, Torbjörn Lundmark looks at each character of our writing system and gives a specific history of it. Keeping with the theme of the book, the layout of the keyboard determines the order in which each character is addressed. As such, he lists numerals and letters as they appear sequentially on the keyboard. Thereafter, punctuation marks and symbols are outlined in a similar manner. Where necessary, he has grouped listings for elements which have common historical relatives, e.g. the letter 'y' is listed under the letter 'i' because they have the same historical antecedents. In addition to basic descriptions, the author lists any special uses, abbreviations, and adds jokes which are specific to a feature of each particular character. The book ends with a handy list of codes and key combinations for the production of letters and symbols not displayed on the computer keyboard. For example if you type '+0252' while holding down the 'alt' key on a PC, the character 'u' with an umlaut appears, ie. 'ü'.

Since the topic is fairly mundane, the average reader might expect that Quirky Qwerty would be dry reading. However, its informal style ensures that the reader remains engaged and interested long after other books dealing with the same topic would have become boring. As suggested by the title, many small unusual pieces of information are interspersed among the text. These tidbits enhance the delivery of information rather than detract from the main topic at hand. All in all, Quirky Qwerty is a well-written and useful reference book which also has the rare quality of being entertaining.

Citation

• Amanda Muller. 'Review: Quirky Qwerty: the story of the keyboard @ your fingertips by Torbjorn Lundmark' [online]. Network Review of Books (Perth, Australian Public Intellectual Network), December 2002. Availability: <please cite the web address here> ISSN 1833-0932. [accessed 23 May 2013].

Back Cover Blurb

• The story of the keyboard begins with ancient hieroglyphs and reaches to the very recent Euro symbol. This text tells the story of each character on the keyboard, as well as the multitude of additional marks that cannot be found on the keys but can still be typed by anyone using a computer.

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