Description
'If you are interested in vocabulary that is both spectacularly useful and beautifully useless, read on. I have read the "OED" so you don't have to!' Weighing in at 137 pounds, the "Oxford English Dictionary" is the word lover's Everest and the world's most exhaustive and exhausting dictionary - for instance, there are over 60,000 words on the various meanings of set and un- goes on for 451 pages. Like a lexicographical Edmund Hillary, Ammon Shea set out to boldly read, where no reader has gone before - from cover to cover."Reading the OED" gives a very funny account of his coffee-fuelled twelve months lost inside its 20 volumes. Divided into 26 chapters, one per letter of the alphabet, this book is part personal narrative (exploring everything from love to glasses to the superiority of books over computers) and part a collection of Shea's favourite discoveries. These span from the oddly useful (parabore - a defence against bores) to the downright bizarre (natiform - shaped like buttocks) and takes in Nashe's eight different kinds of drunkenness and all kinds of other strangely memorable information along the way.
Filled with curiosities, delights and surprises, "Reading the OED" is a feast for language obsessives, from a man who loves words (perhaps a little too much).
show more
Filled with curiosities, delights and surprises, "Reading the OED" is a feast for language obsessives, from a man who loves words (perhaps a little too much).
show more
Book details
- Format:Hardback
- Pages:224 pages
- Dimensions:134 x 202 x 26mm | 340g
- Publication date:02-10-2008
- Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
- Imprint:Allen Lane
- Publication City/Country:London, United Kingdom
- Language:English
- Illustration note:no illustrations
- ISBN10:1846141982
- ISBN13:9781846141980
Note:
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us.
Note
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us.