Skip to content
✕

Shady Characters uses cookies to anonymously record visitor numbers.

Shady Characters

The secret life of punctuation

  • Home
  • Contents
  • Books
  • Elsewhere
  • About
  • Contact

Shady Characters is miscellany, books, and more from Keith Houston. Here you’ll find information technologies of the unorthodox kind: from emoji to unusual marks of punctuation; from codices to calculators; and everything in between.

Now available to pre-order, Face with Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji. Learn more

We have Face with Tears of Joy audio book winners!

August 15, 2025

Congratulations to Mike Poteet, Red, Claire Little and Barbara Matton, winners of the Face with Tears of Joy audio book giveaway! Their names were picked at random from the set of all entrants who replied to the original post about the competition. Thank you all for taking part!

Read more →

book, competition emoji Leave a comment

Win the Face with Tears of Joy audio book!

August 1, 2025

The Face with Tears of Joy audio book is out now, narrated by Michael Butler Murray, and this is your chance to win one of four free copies at audiobooks.com. To enter, leave a comment on this post with a valid email address so that I can contact you in the event that you win.

Read more →

book, competition emoji 19 Comments

We have Face with Tears of Joy winners!

July 8, 2025

Congratulations to Richard Rutter and Mildred, winners of the Face with Tears of Joy giveaway! Their names were picked at random from the set of all entrants who replied to the original post about the competition. Thank you all for taking part!

Read more →

book, competition 3 Comments

Win a copy of Face with Tears of Joy!

June 20, 2025

It’s almost here! Face with Tears of Joy will be published in the US on the 1st of July and in the UK on the 17th of July. (World Emoji Day, in other words, but I didn’t have to tell you that, did I?)

Read more →

book, competition 19 Comments

We have audiobook winners!

November 20, 2023

Congratulations to Piotr, William, Roslyn and Ian, winners of the Empire of the Sum audiobook giveaway! Their names were picked at random from the set of all entrants who replied to the original post about the competition. Thank you all for taking part!

Read more →

book, competition Leave a comment

You are reading posts filed under competition.

Posts navigation

Older
Cover for "Face with Tears of Joy", showing the face with tears of joy emoji throughout emoji history
Face with Tears of Joy paperback. (W. W. Norton, 2025.)

My absolute recommendation as the definitive book on emoji history.

Jeremy Burge, founder of Emojipedia

A fascinatingly geeky and witty history.

Steven Poole, The Guardian

A delightful history.

Hunter Dukes, The Telegraph

A history of emoji, where they came from and how they came to dominate our discourse is much needed, and Houston is a witty, pacey raconteur…Face with Tears of Joy is a comprehensive and often illuminating read.

Chris Stokel-Walker, New Scientist
    Buy at Norton
    Buy at Amazon.com
    Buy at Bookshop.org
    Buy at Waterstones
    Buy at Google Play Books
    Buy for Kobo

The sun rises behind a pocket calculator, whose display reads "07734"
Empire of the Sum hardcover. (W. W. Norton, 2023.)

An entertaining, informative story about a technology that defined an era.

Kirkus Reviews

To describe a calculator as “a symphony of solenoids and switches” (that would be an early, discarded model of what would become the Casio 14-A, which went on the market in 1975 for $1,347) may not be erotica, but it is good writing — and these days, the latter is rather more rare.

Alexander Nazaryan, New York Times
    Buy at Norton
    Buy at Amazon.com
    Buy at Barnes & Noble
    Buy at Bookshop.org
    Buy at Waterstones
    Buy at Google Play Books
    Buy for Kobo

Paperback cover of "The Book", showing the title on a cream band against a dark green background.
The Book paperback. (W. W. Norton, 2025.)

Erudite, playful, and illuminating…a splendid, challenging mixture of information and fun.

Kirkus Reviews

Hundreds of books about books have been published during the past century…I will not claim that this one is the very best of all time. Yet The Book is possibly the best of our time.

Steven Heller, Eye Magazine

Buy at Amazon
Buy at Barnes & Noble
Buy at Waterstones
Buy at Google Play Books
Buy for Kobo


Shady Characters paperback (W. W. Norton, 2014).
Shady Characters paperback (W. W. Norton, 2014).

Punctuation is not a mere ornament or a curiosity — it is essential, and we need to know about it. Keith Houston’s history is entertaining and readable.

Ian Sansom, The Guardian

Scholarly, highly readable and, on some deeper level, slightly deranged.

Marcus Berkmann, The Spectator

Buy at Amazon
Buy at Barnes & Noble
Buy at Waterstones
Buy at Google Play Books
Buy for Kobo

☞
  • Home
  • Contents
  • Books
  • Elsewhere
  • About
  • Contact
  • Bluesky
  • Mastodon
  • Facebook
  • RSS

© Keith Houston 2010–2025 · Colophon