Anyone who would diligently, doggedly read the entire Oxford English Dictionary, cover to cover to cover to cover (it's 20 volumes), is a person after my own heart.
Here's to you, Ammon Shea, and your crazy but charming obsession with words. Your book is pretty charming, too.
In 26 short chapters -- one for each letter of the alphabet, of course -- Shea takes us on his journey through passion and vocabulary. Long a dictionary reader and collector, he had envisioned the project as a leisurely one, undertaken in an easy chair in his New York City apartment.
But street noise, crushing headaches and the siren call of all his other dictionaries forced him out of the house. He settled on a quiet corner in the basement of Hunter College, chosen because the surrounding volumes are in French and thus not a distraction.
In each chapter, Shea includes choice words from his research. He distills the OED's definition, then adds his own witty and illuminating annotations.
Such beautiful, poignant, utterly specific words, such as this one: Desiderium: A yearning for a thing one once had, but has no more. Or this one: Philodox: A person in love with his own opinion.
Now that you know these words exist, don't you wonder how you got along without them?
LAURIE HERTZEL
