I recently saw a story on the front page of Yahoo! about a man who read the entire dictionary. Random things like this interest me, so I read the article to find out what this was all about. The man, Ammon Shea, has indeed read all 21,000 pages of The Oxford English Dictionary. Ammon, a writer and a man who openly loves vocabulary, read the dictionary over the past year.
This isn't the first time someone has undertaken such a task. I am currently reading The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. Not only has Jacobs undertaken living out the Bible, his previous book, The Know-It-All details the year he spent reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.
Are these both examples of a thirst for knowledge? Or, simply just to say they did it? Whatever the case, both of these men show the dedication of two writers to push forward on a new adventure for themselves and their career. Maybe they will inspire me a bit to undertake such a challenge.
To read the article on Ammon Shea, click here.
http://wcbstv.com/local/oxford.dictionary.reader.2.833948.html
1 comment:
My grandpa read the entire dictionary when he was younger. I always thought this was so cool. He, too, has a love for vocab. Not only did he read it, but he also regularly uses the words and tests me on them.
It's always been a bit of a game between the two of us. From when I was very young he'd use big words that I didnt know and when I'd ask what they meant he'd say, "You wont learn anything if you always rely on others to tell you the answers." Then he'd direct me to the bookcase to find the dictionary.
Now, we test each other. It's the best when I get to point him in the direction of the bookcase. I admit that it is a dorky game but I owe a lot to my grandfather for giving me a love for words, which lead me to journalism.
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