Reading the Dictionary For Fun?

Confession time.  I love dictionaries.  Not just the idea of them, but reading them too.  I would bet I am not alone.  I mean, I am writing this blog for librarians and readers.  It is actually quite common for people who love reading to love books about reading and words.  I was recently reminded of this when I took my 3rd grader to buy her own dictionary at the used book store.  Once we got home, she spent a few hours looking up words.  Yes, she too was reading the dictionary for fun.

The king of all dictionaries is the Oxford English Dictionary.  Many odes have been written to its greatness, the best of which is Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary.  There is a brand new online version of the OED out, and in the New Yorker's Book Blog, The Book Bench, Ian Crouch has this review of it, which also includes his personal confession of dictionary love.

In even more dictionary leisure reading news, one of my favorite YA authors, David Levithan, just released his first adult novel, The Lover's Dictionary.  It is a love story written in dictionary entries.  Click here for more on the book from GalleyCat.  I am going to assume Levithan also shares my dictionary love.

See, we are not alone.  Stand-up for your dictionary love, and know you are not alone.  Take Crouch's advice and head to your public libraries database page and read the OED for yourself.  Or better yet, visit the library in person and get your hands on the print version.