First off, 'preliminary' looks funny and without spell check there is no hope for me ever spelling it correctly.
So I'm reading Titus Groan, the first book of the Gormenghast trilogy. I knew I would like this book for reasons I can't express. It's awesome and has been better than every expectation I had. I'm only a hundred pages in and can't even begin to guess at the level of awesome the next three-hundred will hold--or where there story is going for that matter.
I'm going to break one of my self-imposed blogging rules and upon the books completion leave a commentary. It goes against my 'don't rave about dead authors of the classics' rule, but I'm willing to look the other way concerning my own infraction. I could be wrong, but I feel that Mervyn Peake's name isn't as well known as it should be, but beyond that I'm not going to justify my rule breaking.
Put this one on the bucket list: hell just go to your library and get a copy. Now. You will not be sorry.
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5 comments:
"First off, 'preliminary' looks funny and without spell check there is no hope for me ever spelling it correctly."
E-hum (throat clearing noise). You're a writer. Somewhere in your apartment, probably on a shelf, there should be a hefty volume in which you'll find a very long list of English language words. It's called a dictionary. In it you'll find definitions of words AND their spellings.For future reference.
(That was humor, by the way.)
On a more serious note, I'm buying Titus Groan (though not right this very second). I looked it up on Amazon,and sometimes a book just speaks to you.
I own no dictionary; not a book I can justify the cost of seeing as there is a annual new edition. The ease of the interwebs (which has some truly encyclopedic dictionaries) and technology in general have made such a book unnecessary.
Besides, I've never really been a non-fiction reader.
I led you to Amazon, where you then decided to buy it... is Amazon validating my opinion? Careful, I could have fun at your expense there!
I would advise buying the books separately (I actually can spell separate without assistant; most people can't). The omnibus I have is too big, and unwieldy.
I hope you like it; I'll share my glowing praise shortly.
Unwieldly books are good for reading at a table. But who does that these days, leisurely reading at a table when when you don't need to write too?
I don't quite understand your Amazon remark. Perhaps I gave the impression that I go to Amazon for the customer ratings, which couldn't be farther from the truth. They're of such relative value that that they're no indicator at all of what one might like. Is it safe to assume that we agree on that?
As for the cost of a dictionary, I bought mine for 8 euros at a used book store. It serves as a compliment to online dictionaries. However I don't know of any dictionary that publishes a new edition every year.
At the beginning of the year I bought the Oxford American Thesaurus which I refer to regularly because of the extras you won't find on a site like dictionary.com. In both this and my dictionary the editorial comments are also interesting.
The OED is updated four times a year; it's mind boggling to think but they also publish four updates a year.
http://www.oed.com/help/updates/pimesic-pleating.html
I was teasing you about amazon; or at least I hope you don't go there to validate my own comments on books.
The thesaurus has me interested. I'll have to see how many store points I can spare next time I'm at Books for Less. It's a tough call: I can buy a handle of rum for eight euro...
Four updates a year? Does our language evolve that fast????
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