A Superior Person
...Requires superior books. A superior person also needs to use good words. Thankfully Peter Bowler has written not one, not two, but three books that give us just that! I only found The Superior Person's Book of Words in a local bookshop yesterday and I got a little too excited about it. I resisted the urge to buy it and The Superior Person's Second Book of Weird and Wondrous Words. Now that I've just done an Amazon search, I was elated to discover a third in the series: The Superior Person's Third Book of Well-Bred Words.
This continues my recent habit of buying books about words. Two weeks ago I walked out of Angus and Robertson with the classic English how-to books 'Usage and Abusage' and 'Plain Words'. Usage and Abusage is excellent reading.
In the same splurge, I found a Simon Winchester hard cover collection for only $7! It has three novels within; The River at the Centre of the World; The Surgeon of Crowthorne; and The Map That Changed The World. I admit that The River wasn't a book I was looking to buy, but The Surgeon and The Map were two books I wanted. With my bent for buying books about words it was inevitable that I read a book about the creation of the ultimate book about words, the OED.
posted by Casyn the librarian
10/06/2004 02:03:00 am
5 viewers interjected with:
Have you ever tried the Douglas Adams book 'The Deeper Meaning of Liff'? A weird and wonderful little book about words by a weird and wonderful author.
6/10/04 8:30 pm
I can't see why you don't just buy a dictionary?
6/10/04 10:51 pm
I've not read any Douglas Adams, I will see if I can get a copy of that book. If it's a little book even better!
I have a couple of dictionaries already, and I need a new one. My favourite dictionary is an old old one, it has a picture of the Queen and her parents in the front, she looks to be about 12. The definitions of words are excellent. Dictionaries are best accompanied by a wide range of other resources, I say. :-)
6/10/04 11:05 pm
Not read any Douglas Adams?!
Shocking!
7/10/04 5:52 pm
I admit my ignorance to Douglas Adams. No one has ever told me 'here read this', and I've never randomly picked one up either.
I will look into and will see if he lands on my 'to read' pile.
7/10/04 11:14 pm
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