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.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Porno For Bibliophiliacs:
If this book was in any way meant to be a subliminal commercial for the Oxford English Dictionary (All Hail Its August Name!) it worked, because after reading this I forked over megabucks for my own set: and during a recession, too, go figger. This story of one man's obsessive love of dictionaries and his veritable marriage to the OED brought back enjoyable memories of A.J. Jacobs' The Know It All, in which the similarly driven A.J. spent a year reading the Encyclopedia Britannica. The comparisons between... more info
Great book for word geeks:
Hilarious and well-written, this book is great for word geeks everywhere. I've already used "storge" in general conversation!
reading the oed:
This is a great book not only for those who love their dictionaries or own an OED, which seem to be the people who have reviewed this book so far. I neither love my dictionary** I own my mom's from high-school and i read it to fall asleep** nor do i own a single volume of the OED, the last time i even saw a copy of the OEd was the condensed version at my high-school library.
What makes this a great fascinating and entertaining book to read is the words that Shea choose to highlight, his version of... more info
I don't believe it!!:
OK, I gave this book 5 stars, because I didn't read it, and did not want my critical comment to detract from what was perhaps an honest effort.
But I own the OED, and I personally do not see how someone can simply go forward and read every definition, quote (many of which are written in Old English and almost impossible to decipher), and sense of simple words in ONE YEAR. That's about 60 pages a day. Now I LOVE my OED, and I have spent hours poring over its glorious and mysterious words and scholarly... more info
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