About this title: With sharp wit, sheer delight, and a keen eye, Shea shares his year inside the "Oxford English Dictionary," 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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Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. 2008-Hardcover----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Description: Good. 2009-Paperback----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Perigee Trade
Date Published: 2008-07-02
ISBN-13:9780399533983ISBN:0399533982
Description: New in New jacket. New Hardback Book With Publisher's Inventory Mark. We ship 6 days a week, generally within 24 hours; single CDs and DVDs upgraded to 1st class! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Perigee
Date Published: 2009-05-05
ISBN-13:9780399535055ISBN:0399535055
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780399535055. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Perigee Trade
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780399535055ISBN:0399535055
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Perigee
Date Published: 2008-07-02
ISBN-13:9780399533983ISBN:0399533982
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780399533983. read more
"When I was in college I kept a short list of my favorite words. My very favorite word at that time was pensive. It conveyed such a clear description to me. I thought I was pensive. One of my friends ridiculed me for even having a favorite word. She said had never known anyone who did. I believe everyone has favorite words - not just words they use over and over - but words they really, really like.
So, as one who likes to dictionary-surf, I was thrilled by the concept of this book. Actually reading it did not thrill me, even though I learned from it. I learned that I would like to disasinate some of the bayards I know when they obganiate. I learned that, of late, I have been suffering from desiderium and sometimes even palaeolatry. I feel much better knowing that my afflications have names. I love a meadow that is impluvious and the resulting petrichor, even if I balter through it. But I guess baltering is to be expected as you reach your paracme. And I take umbrage at being called a streetwalker, but I don't mind being known as a vicambulist because I really am one.
What disappointed me about this book were Ammon Shea's choices. C'mon, out of all 21,730 pages of the OED this is best he could come up with? He seems to have a special fondness for prefixes and suffixes, for compound words, and for words that are rather self-explanatory. I was hoping to find some rare gems in here, but alas his choices left me wanting - and he offered no word for that. I heartily agree with the author that "It is not so much that I an anticomputer; I am resolutely and stubbornly pro-book." I just don't get the appeal of, say, the Kindle."
"now i can say with pride that, yes! i, too, read the dictionary! can't say i've read the OED. more like, a page or two of different ones here and there, and only when i feel like it. he describes dictionary-reading as a great many things. it could start from the love-at-first-sniff ink, to the dog-eared yellow or brown pages, and that somewhat moldy scent draws you in; you love all of those things! but it can turn into a time-consuming, tenacious monster, and it is terribly taxing on your eyes! i found myself in several poor (some not-so-poor) attempts at guessing etymologies or the meaning before i read its definition. made me feel like a word Sherlock. i was right 20% of the time. okay, maybe 30. A great read. some favorites of his favorites: ambisinistrous (for reasons i won't enumerate here, now my world suddenly makes sense) happify, letabund, residentarian, petrichor, psithurism, tricoteuse (i shook my head at that one - no pun intended), umbriphilous. indesinence."
"Ammon Shea has done something most of us will never do--read the Oxford English Dictionary from cover to cover in a year, all twenty volumes and 21,730 pages of it. He's brought us the story of this marathon in "Reading the OED," and the result is a verbal feast for anyone who loves words. The tale unfolds in twenty-six chapters, one for each letter of the alphabet. Each chapter opens with a narrative section followed by a selection of some of Shea's favorite words beginning with that letter. Along the way, we learn how his love for dictionaries evolved and how he began collecting them. He had some preparation--reading both the second and third edition of the unabridged Webster's from cover to cover--but hadn't attempted anything of this magnitude. He spent ten hours a day reading, enduring headaches, deteriorating vision and a growing addiction to coffee. We follow him on his search for an ideal place to read. He first tries his own apartment (too many distractions), then various outdoor settings (too many distractions of a different sort) before finally settling into the basement of a university library. His one break during the year? Three days at the conference of the Dictionary Society of North America, of course.
What shines through these pages, and makes it such an enjoyable read, is Shea's sheer love of words--unusual ones, obsolete ones, ones with forgotten meanings. Within the 21,730 pages of the OED he found "everything I had ever looked for in a novel: joy and sorrow, laughter and frustration, and the excitement and contentment that is unique to great storytelling." The best proof of that assertion? Once Shea was finished, he decided to read the whole thing over again."
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