Post 77

In Post 75, I mentioned that I had a collection that would soon be worth bragging about. Well, the time has come to brag.

You know how some people collect stamps or coins or shot glasses? I collect dictionaries. Dictionaries may not be among the most popular collectibles, but they are certainly more useful other collectibles. Let me tell you about each one, moving from shortest to tallest (since that's how they're arranged on the shelf above my computer monitor):

The Oxford American Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus (2nd ed). Just a standard desk dictionary. Of all my dictionaries, this is the one I use most often because it works well enough for most of my needs. A few years ago, I decided I wanted to read this dictionary and highlight all the cool words I learned. I only got through A, J, K, Q, W, X, Y, Z, and about halfway through P before my mission interrupted me, and I've never gotten back to it, but sometimes I enjoy flipping through it and reading some highlighted words.

The New American Webster Handy College Dictionary (3rd ed). In comparison to my Oxford, this really isn't a very impressive little dictionary and is not, therefore, as handy as its name implies. Nevertheless, I have to have a Webster to balance the Oxford--a need which arises occasionally when Oxford says something totally unbelievable.

Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (2nd ed). I got this dictionary as a Christmas present from my parents. At first, I wasn't sure how useful it would be, but I've been pleasantly surprised at how much I've used it, mostly when trying to understand random allusions. Because most of its entries are phrases, the organization can get a little confusing, but I can't complain too much about that. I'm happy to have this one; it's a lot of fun to peruse.

The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate by Eugene Ehrlich. This is my most recent addition (it just came today from Amazon), and I am extremely excited to become acquainted with it. I like to think I'm fairly literate, but flipping through this book makes me realize that I'm really just an sapient abecedarian, which makes me rather lachrymose, but hopefully this book will take my jejune vocabulary and--uh--make it better. The process may be operose, and in my resultant jactation, I may start blogging with unnecessary panache and ridiculous paronomasia, but at least I'll then be able to give this fine book a panegyric it's worthy of (as opposed to just flipping through it and using random words--like I am now).

Merriam-Webster English Usage Dictionary (1994). This book fascinates me. Of all my dictionaries, this is probably the one I need most. The rules of English are tenuous and highly disputed; I'm happy to have some authoritative source to turn to that's more authoritative than my little writing handbook. I want a solid understanding of the rules so I can break them properly; the problem is, the rules I break poorly are usually the ones that I didn't know existed. Can you believe that I almost lived all the way to age 22 without knowing that compliment and complement are two different word? Embarrassing! I may have to read this book straight though if I really want to get where I want to be. Daunting thought....

The Reader's Digest Great Encyclopedic Dictionary (1967). I picked this up at a thrift store for cheap ($8, I think). It's a large, single-volume dictionary. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I really don't know how good of a dictionary it is--I don't know that I've ever really looked up anything in it. But that's probably because I bought it for its appendices. The spine of this dictionary looks like this:

The
Reader's Digest
Great
Encyclopedic
Dictionary

DICTIONARY A-Z

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS
*
The Story of Writing
The History of English
Word Origins
Better Usage
*
Spelling
Punctuation
Capitalization
Grammar
Correspondence
Manuscript Preparation
Pronunciation
*
Dictionary of Space
Medical Dictionary
Dictionary of Slang
Quotations from Reader's Digest
First Names
Signs and Symbols
*
How to Find Information
*
Foreign Language Dictionaries
German
French
Spanish

It's pretty sweet. I especially enjoy the Dictionary of Slang since it's 1967 slang.

Britannica World Language Edition of Funk & Wagnalls New Practical Standard Dictionary (1956). My biggest dictionary--two volumes. Also my oldest dictionary, so I have to be careful sometimes. I like it a lot, though; it has pretty much everything in it--and I can hope that anything it doesn't have will be in my Highly Selective.

So, that's my collection. I also reference http://www.urbandictionary.com/ and http://www.rhymezone.com/ fairly regularly, and I have an old Roget's International Thesaurus that is unbelievably thorough. Really, I think the only way my collection could be more thorough would be if I got an OED--but that's a ways off financially.