Summer — what better time to dip your toes into the refreshing stream of books about language? Here are some fascinating books for pool, porch or pond.
What do you get when you read a 20-volume dictionary that weighs 137 pounds? According to Ammon Shea's "Reading the OED" (Penguin, $21.95), headaches, eyestrain — and a remarkably rich and rewarding tour of human experience.
From "abluvion" (things washed away) to "zyxt" (to see), Shea zy ...
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