Oh, look, I said. A book about people who worked on the Oxford English Dictionary! My husband said something disparaging. Oh, no! I said; It’s right up my alley! I already read one book about it. [The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester] I dug in and was delighted! Charmed! I loved reading about these diverse people crazy enough to want to be a part of this amazing intellectual feat. I came to love Dr. Murray, who dedicated his life’s work to completing the dictionary. The OED included the historical use of each word through quotations from written publications. Readers, as the contributors were called, read assigned books or from their own reading, and noted words of interest, quoting its use in the book and the source. They sent in slips with the information. Other volunteers helped to organize and edit the dictionary. In a world with so many problems, it is wonderful to escape into the stories of interesting and inspirational nonentities. Ogilvie’s chapters are titled with the letters of the alphabet and named for a group of OED contributors. They are far more diverse than you would ever expect. Cannibals. Pornographers. Vicars and novelists. Junkies, kleptomaniacs, lunatics, and murderers. Queers and rain collectors. Suffragettes. Even New Zealanders. I was puffed up that the contributor who sent in the most slips was the Rev. Job Pierson from Michigan. He was a presbyterian minister living in Ionia who read Chaucer and books on lumbering. The American Biographical History of Eminent and Self-Made Men, Michigan, Volume, 1878, noted the reverend had the largest private library in the state, especially in English Literature. Ionia was settled by Germans from New York in 1833 and by 1878 it was a town of 4,000. I expect the good reverend found the intellectual challenge stimulating, having lived in larger cities and being well educated, and serving in a small city in rural Michigan. I was at a gathering and told my friends about the book and they were interested in it, too. I expect my copy to be making the rounds, while the snow birds noted the title to request from the library. Thanks to the publisher for a free book. (read less)

Oh, look, I said. A book about people who worked on the Oxford English Dictionary! My husband said something disparaging. Oh, no! I said; It’s right up my alley! I already read one book about it. [The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester] I dug in and was delighted! Charmed! I loved reading about these (read more)

Interesting in its way, but borders on the tedious recitation of who read what to find which words. Some of the sections are better than others, but the artifice of having chapters following the letters of the alphabet with contrived subjects came off as strained. This book is more of a catalog of biographical vignettes rather than a sustained narrative about the creation of the OED: This is no "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary." That said, the author's commitment and energy are palpable. I really wish she had spent more time describing the archive of slips, which seems more curious. Solid, but not rising to inspirational or exciting. (read less)

Interesting in its way, but borders on the tedious recitation of who read what to find which words. Some of the sections are better than others, but the artifice of having chapters following the letters of the alphabet with contrived subjects came off as strained. This book is more of a catalog of biographical vignettes rather than a sustained narrative about the creation of the OED: This (read more)