Reading the OED: one man, one year, 21,730 pages

 

As the title suggests, the author read the staggering OED back to back over one

year because first, it was there, and second, he loved it.

 

He then chronicled this experience in 26 chapters, each consisting of a story

followed by a list of words starting with the same character that he gleaned

from the dictionary. Shea's obsession with words seeps throughout the 223

pages.

 

The second time I picked up the book was at the end of 2019. (We were buying a

new house and that's why I remembered.) I had treated it as a vocabulary book

and as such I checked back every couple of years to see if I had made any

progress. I didn't learn a single word.

 

After four years, I still recall the author, a New Yorker who collected and read

dictionaries, worked as a furniture mover, and had the insane luck of living with

an ex-lexicographer girlfriend. This time, I knew four words in the book before

I started reading: apricity, iatrogenic, misandry and petrichor.

 

I instantly picked up the word "rapin" as it defines me, an unruly art

student: on the jiu-jitsu mat, I often tap too late in spite of being told

so many times: "tap early, tap often."

 

To me, Ammon Shea was just as inspiring as Malcolm X. Both read a dictionary. I

imagined him a disciplinarian to boot, physically strong, and a wise man who saw

through human vanities and the material mess we lived in. But this book didn't

touch those subjects. Unlike Mr. X, Shea claimed that gathering words was only

hobby. He had no axe to grind and no practical purpose in reading the OED. It

was pure enjoyment statisfying the curiosity of his mind.

 

Toward the end, I did some calculation. 21730 pages a year is about 60 pages a

day. At the same pace, I could finish the American Heritage Dictionary in about

a month, come up with lists of words, and write the same kind of book!

[7grizzly]

回复 '暖冬cool夏' 的评论 : Thank you, my friend. Reading the dictionary for me was like an arranged marriage: love came afterwards :-)

[暖冬cool夏]

You are not alone! When I saw the picture on the book cover, I cannot help laughing:) But a guy who can read 60 pages of the dictionary a day on average. It has to come from love!
You are almost there too!