Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages
An obsessive word lover’s account of reading the Oxford English Dictionary cover to cover. “I’m reading the OED so you don’t have to. If you are interested in vocabulary that is both spectacularly useful and beautifully useless, read on...” So reports Ammon Shea, the tireless, word-obsessed, and...
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An obsessive word lover’s account of reading the Oxford English Dictionary cover to cover. “I’m reading the OED so you don’t have to. If you are interested in vocabulary that is both spectacularly useful and beautifully useless, read on...” So reports Ammon Shea, the tireless, word-obsessed, and more than slightly masochistic author of Reading the OED. The word lover’s Mount Everest, the OED has enthralled logophiles since its initial publication 80 years ago. Weighing in at 137 pounds, it is the dictionary to end all dictionaries. In 26 chapters filled with sharp wit, sheer delight, and a documentarian’s keen eye, Shea shares his year inside the OED, delivering a hair-pulling, eye-crossing account of reading every word, and revealing the most obscure, hilarious, and wonderful gems he discovers along the way.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780399533983 (0399533982)
Publish date: July 2nd 2008
Publisher: Perigee Trade
Pages no: 223
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
Humor,
Autobiography,
Memoir,
Biography,
Writing,
History,
Reference,
Humanities,
Language,
Books About Books,
Adult
- Have you come across a book called Reading the OED, Professor?- Yes, I believe I leafed through it in bookshop once. Frightfully vulgar little volume. Do pass the port, there's a good fellow.- By all means. And what fault did you find with it, if I may ask?- Oh, the author attempted to entertain h...
I wanted to like this book. I love language and dictionaries. But somehow I lost interest about 1/2 way through. I forced myself to go a little farther, but then I just found myself picking up other books instead. So I'm rating it "it was ok." It's humorous and if you like language, you'll probably ...
The Book Report: Ammon Shea, whom I suspect of autodidacticism, was a New York City furniture mover and dicitionary freak living with his recovering lexicographer girlfriend when he conceives of a way to get paid for sitting in a corner and reading: He will, in one year, read the entire 20-volume pr...
I am a dictionary reader--not like Shea, who reads them straight through, but in a more desultory manner, as occasional pleasure reading. I am one of those people who list a good dictionary when asked which 5 books I'd take with me to a desert island. I am as likely as the next dictionary reader to ...
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