Reading the OED
By Ammon Shea
(Perigee Trade, Paperback, 9780399535055, 256pp.)
Publication Date: May 2009
Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover (August 2008)
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 read his first dictionary, Merriam Webster's Second International, ten years ago, and followed it up with the sequel, Webster's Third International. He has been reading dictionaries, lexicons, and glossaries ever since. He lives surrounded by large, old books.
"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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