Getting Reacquainted with Gerunds

Editor's Note: Mr. Tomato wrote today's review. He loves factoids. Plus we asked him to. He always does what we ask. Well most of the time. Well some of the time.

Not that I ever really understood or cared about gerunds when Miss Kennedy, my English teacher, covered them more than 50 years ago. However, Readers Digest has published an interesting trio of books covering just about everything you maybe learned then quickly forgot. It’s a walk down memory lane. They are a perfect gift for the perennial student.


I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School By Carol Taggart, the first of the trio, will trigger your memory with fun facts you learned in school – from adverbs to the Pythagorean Theorem. Witty, engaging, entertaining; the information is presented in east-to-retain, bite sized chunks.

Covering subjects such as English language, English literature, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History, Geography, Religion, and Music, this book features all of the most important theories, equations, phrases, and rules we were all taught years ago.


The second book My Grammar and I…Or Should That Be Me? (How to Speak and Write It Right) By Carol Taggaet and J.A. Wines covers everything from gerunds to parts of speech I don’t ever remember learning in a compact, interesting, and light-hearted manner. This is a book that you will keep handy for reference as it is packed with those long-forgotten “rules” you once learned in school.


i before e (except after c) …old-school ways to remember stuff By Judy Parkinson rounds out the trio. Featuring all the memory-jogging tips you’ll ever need to know, this fun filled little book will help you recall hundreds of important facts using simple, easy to-to-remember mnemonics from your school days. For dyslectics like me, who live by spell-check, this book is a keeper.

All three books are perfect for teachers, students, parents, and general knowledge enthusiasts as a quick way to look up things you forgot from school.