Reading the OED
One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages
By Ammon Shea
(Perigee Trade, Paperback, 9780399535055, 256pp.)
Publication Date: May 5, 2009
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Hardcover
Categories: Dictionaries - General, Reference
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An obsessive word lover's account of reading the entire Oxford English Dictionary, hailed as "the Super Size Me of lexicography."
"I'm reading the OED so you don't have to," says Ammon Shea on his slightly masochistic journey to scale the word lover's Mount Everest: the Oxford English Dictionary. 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.
Ammon Shea is the author of two previous books on obscure words, Depraved English and Insulting English (written with Peter Novobatzky). He read his first dictionary, Merriam Webster’s Second International, ten years ago, and followed it up with the sequel, Webster’s Third International. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
"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
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