Description
An obsessive word lover provides an account of the year he spent reading the Oxford English Dictionary cover to cover, offering a selection of obscure and offbeat vocabulary gems he discovered along the way.
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To enthusiast Shea, the 137 pounds is as nothing, the tiny print is no impediment, and getting through the nearly 22,000 pages is just a labor of love. Working on the idea that you always imitate the source of your inspiration and power, Shea plowed through all said pages and managed to do so in one year and arranged some of his chief findings in alphabetical order, from whence we come to learn such terms as "father-better" and "twi-thought." Much better than a word-a-day approach, and containing infinitely more clever ideas and usage, Shea's treatment features a wry approach to his love of the language and what appears to be a staggering amount, literally, of caffeine. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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