Learn 10 English Idioms with ‘BOOK’

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we have a lesson on some metaphors or idioms using

the word "book". So, there are quite a few of these. You may find them useful ones to

use in your English conversation or in writing, and so on. So, I'll just go through the list

and explain each one. Okay?

So, first of all, we have a closed book. So, in a literal sense, that's a book that the

pages are not open, the covers are showing the book is closed, so you can't read what's

inside. So, if a person is a closed book or if someone says, "Oh, her life to me is a

closed book", meaning she's someone who doesn't tell you very much about herself, her life

is a closed book. We don't know, you know, outside the office, we don't know much about

her. So, that person is a closed book or her life is a closed book because it's closed,

you can't read any of the pages. Okay? And then the opposite of that is an open book.

I could say, "My life is an open book. I'm very open about what I'm doing." Open book,

you can read the pages, so you know certain things about the person that way. Okay?

And then a little bit similar, if you say to someone, "I can read you like a book",

it means it's usually someone you know well, and you know how they think, you know how they make

choices, you know what motivates them, what they're interested in, and so on. So, you can

sometimes guess what they're going to do next or guess what they're going to say next. So, if you

say to someone, "I can read you like a book", meaning I know exactly what you're going to do

next, I know what you're thinking, things like that. Okay? Because you know them so well,

you've probably known them for a long time. Okay. Right. And then the next one, if something is

the oldest trick in the book, if you say, "Ah, that's the oldest trick in the book",

that's when somebody has actually done something deceptive to somebody,

they've tricked them in some way. Maybe a way of getting money from someone,

maybe borrowing money that you don't intend to pay back, that sort of person. Or to say,

"Oh, I've lost my wallet." You know, it could be a complete stranger who comes up to you in the

street and says, "Oh, I hope you can help me. I've lost my wallet. I just need a pound

at bus fare to get home." And you feel sorry for them, and you give them a pound, and they walk

off. They probably don't get on the bus. And then you tell someone what happened, and you say,

"Well, I'm not sure now. I've been wondering. Was that person really telling me the truth,

or was he just trying to get some money out of me?" And your friend might say, "Oh, well,

I think that's the oldest trick in the book, to trick somebody out of some money." So it's one

of those things that people do, a particular strategy which is not at all nice. Okay.

And then the next one, if someone is in my good books, or they may be in my bad books,

so that's when it's a person... If they're in your good books, you're thinking well of them,

you're friendly with them, you think well of them, you like them, they're not doing anything

to upset you. But if someone is in your bad books, they've done something to annoy you or upset you,

and you're not... Perhaps not very friendly towards them because of that. You don't really

want to talk to them or see them if they're in your bad books because they make you feel

annoyed or upset. Okay. Right. And the next one, if you're doing it by the book,

doing something by the book, it means you're following the rules of some guidelines of how

something should be done. Maybe if it's to do with some sort of legal process or some police

type of process, they have to do things in a certain way according to the rules,

so they have to try to do it by the book. If you don't do things by the book, you might get into

trouble. People will say, "Oh no, well that's no good. You must do it by the book. Do it the proper

way." Okay? That's that one. If you say to someone, "I'm going to take a leaf out of your

book", a leaf... Well, a leaf can mean a leaf that grows on a tree or on a plant, but a leaf of a

page, the paper page, that's also called a leaf. So, if you take a leaf out of somebody's book,

it's like taking a page out of their book, but you're not doing it literally. You're not tearing

a page out of a book. You're looking at how they do things and you're copying because you think,

"Oh, she does that well. I think I'll do it like that. It seems to work well."

So, that's quite effective. So, "I'm going to take a leaf out of her book." So, it means really

just copying someone, doing something, learning from another person's way of doing something,

and doing it the same way, and seeing if it works for you. So, "I'm going to take a leaf

out of your book and do it your way because it seems to work very well." Okay?

Right. Then the next one, you can't judge a book by its cover. So, the cover of a book

is often very important. You know, people put a lot of work into the design of a book cover

because usually they want to make it look attractive. They want people to buy it in

the bookshop or order it on the internet. So, the cover of the book is actually quite important;

the colours, the design, the typeface, the lettering, the title, the name of the author,

all of that. But this is saying you can't judge a book by its cover. It means the cover may

look great and make you want to buy it, but when you start reading it, you might be disappointed.

The contents of the book may not match the cover. Okay? So, I mean, this is a metaphor.

You could say it literally to do with a book, but usually, metaphorically, it can be used about

a person. So, you might meet somebody who dresses very well, very smart, very clean and smart,

and you think, "Oh, that's a good person, a very professional person, very honest", and so on,

and you trust them. But then you might find that they're not what you thought at all,

and that their outward appearance with their smart clothes and everything is deceptive,

and they may be, you know, a criminal type of person or a dishonest person in some way.

So, you can't judge... What it means is you can't judge from the outward appearance

of anything, from a book to a person to anything else. Okay? Right. And then finally,

if someone is cooking the books, this is when people are doing the finance for... Maybe for a

company. They're organising the accounts and the income... Incoming money, expenditure,

the outgoing money. They're balancing the books. They're keeping a note of all the spending

and all the money that's come in, all the money that's gone out,

so they can work out the profit at the end of the year or the end of the month.

And also, expenses. People claim their expenses if they've been to a meeting,

their travel expenses, things like that. So, if somebody's cooking the books, it means they're

doing something dishonest. They may be taking some of the money, and they may be putting it down as

expenses for something to do with the business, when in fact that might not be true. And so,

and they're getting some money out of the company, but it's not for what... It's not for the purpose

that they say it's for. So, it's dishonest, taking money dishonestly, which is stealing,

really. So, if someone's cooking the books, they're covering something up. They're falsifying

the figures in some way. Okay. And they could be arrested, they could be put on trial in a court,

they could go to prison if it's really serious, if a lot of money is involved. So, cooking the

books is not a good idea. Okay, so that's the one to end with. So, I hope that's been useful.

If you'd like to do a quiz to test your knowledge on these metaphors and idioms,

just go to the website, www.engvid.com, do the quiz, and I hope that's been useful.

Thank you for watching, and see you again soon. Bye for now.