OK, it's not about economics, but David Wolman of Wired sent me the new paperback of his book Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to email, the tangled story of English spelling. It's full of fascinating information about the history of this beautiful language.

The theme is the interplay between forces driving English usage towards standardisation and away again. Technology has played a key role in the swings of this pendulum over the centuries, from the days of parchment and quill to the printing press and now the internet.

The book includes, for example, the tale of Google's spelling function and the influence online activity is having on spelling and usage. Google can work out what you mean if you mis-spell or mistype a word, and makes it seem less scary by asking in a neutral way “Do you mean?” when it suggests the correct version. “In this way Google can be authoritative rather without being authoritarian,” Wolman writes. Interestingly, though, as Google wants to get people to the best search results, it has to go along with common mis-spellings. The black and white spotty dog called a dalmatian is spelt by most people as 'dalmation' – so Google will go with the latter. The Internet is moving us perhaps towards a simplified, instinctual spelling.

In short, this is a delightful book (or booke, or boke) for writers, readers and lovers of the language of Shakespeare (or Shaykspeare, or Shakspear). Technology and globalisation are making our language more dynamic, vibrant and rich than ever. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.