This is the kind of book I feel I should have on my shelf. It is full of stories that can act as inspiration, new words to liven up my writing, and background on things I never thought to think about, such as why we name colors the way we do and whether what we call taupe today is what people 200 hundred years ago called taupe (partly I’ve never asked this question because I’ve never used the word taupe and couldn’t have guessed what color it was until I read this book).

My only complaint is that it was too short. I wanted more detail for many of the colors and I wanted more shades of each one. She recommends other books at the end and I think I’ll be picking up some of those recommendations.