Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages

by Ammon Shea Narrated by William Dufris

Overview

""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.

Editorial Reviews

Nicholson Baker

an oddly inspiring book about reading the whole of the Oxford English Dictionary in one go…Shea's book offers more than exotic word lists, though. It also has a plot. "I feel as though I am eating the alphabet," he writes halfway through, and you want him to make it to the end. This is the "Super Size Me" of lexicography.
—The New York Times

From the Publisher

"Oddly inspiring...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."
-Nicholson Baker, New York Times Book Review

"Delicious...a lively lexicon."
-O, The Oprah Magazine

"Readworthy."
-William Safire, The New York Times Magazine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170297801
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/14/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

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