WriMo Ireland

All the talk about words lately has got me thinking. I’m a big fan of ‘words’ in general – I love to read about the English language and the ways in which it has evolved. I also just like to collect unusual words and attempt to use them where possible. So I thought I would share some of my favourite books on the subject and ask you all for some recommendations on where I could go next!

‘The Deeper Meaning of Liff’ – Douglas Adams
Not a particularly serious book but I love the creativity involved in this and it always gives me a laugh no matter what page I happen to open up.

‘Larpers & Shroomers: The Language Report’ – Susie Dent
I suspect this one is a little out of date now (2004) but it’s still one of my favourites – I must check and see if there is a newer edition available. It looks at many different words from all varieties of English – from the US, to New Zealand and South Africa – and explores a lot of modern words that have arisen from the Internet.

‘Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary: Or why can’t anybody spell?’ – Vivian Cook
This covers spelling more than words, another pet interest of mine, and is not necessarily what you’d expect – very balanced view of differences in spelling. A little dry at times if you’re not that interested in the subject and don’t want to read lists of words – contains tests to keep you interested.

‘Foyle’s Philavery’ – Collected by Christopher Foyle
A dictionary of unusual words – some are well-known and just chosen for their beauty, others I have never heard of before. Not all the way through this one yet but have learned some great words so far.

So if anybody has any recommendations for me, fire ahead! As far as I’m concerned, this subject never grows old.

DailyLit.com sends you installments of books by email or RSS, and is a great way to read something that you might not have considered before (if a bit slowly, sometimes).

They used to only have free books, as far as I can remember, but they’ve extended their catalogue quite a lot recently to have more recent titles though at a price (usually 4 or 5 dollars). The majority are still free though.

They’ve also just added the ability to sign someone else up to receive a DailyLit book – and to add a personalised message to it. (A nice cheap Christmas present if you pick one of the free ones!)

I’ve finished reading about three books with them so far, and I’m on the installment plan for Great Expectations at the moment – although I’ve never really liked Dickens, I’m finding him much more palatable in tiny doses!

(And I nearly put 2007 in the title. D’oh.)

 Anyway, there was a post the other day on the Emerging Writer blog about the following reading challenge:

Pick six books – one from each of the following categories…

A book with a colour in its title.
A book with an animal in its title.
A book with a first name in its title.
A book with a place in its title.
A book with a weather event in its title.
A book with a plant in its title.

I really like the idea of doing this, but can anyway think of any books to fit these categories? I have a few that would work, but obviously I’ve read them before.