Short description
With sharp wit, sheer delight, and a keen eye, Shea shares his year inside the "Oxford English Dictionary," delivering an eye-crossing account of reading every word, and revealing the most obscure, hilarious gems he discovers along the way.
Long description
An obsessive word loveras account of reading the Oxford English Dictionary cover to cover. aIam reading the OED so you donat have to. If you are interested in vocabulary that is both spectacularly useful and beautifully useless, read on...a So reports Ammon Shea, the tireless, word-obsessed, and more than slightly masochistic author of Reading the OED, The word loveras 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 documentarianas 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.
Review
Oddly inspiring.a]This is the Super Size Me of lexicographya].Shea has walked the wildwood of our gnarled, ancient speech and returned singing incomprehensible sounds in a language that turns out to be our own.a
aNicholson Baker, New York Times Book Review