Since 3:30 AM this morning (with one bloggable exception), I have been amusing myself with Roy Blount Jr.'s Alphabet Juice, the subtitle for which begins (but does not end) with: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof...
(Other Blount subtitle words include but are not limited to "innards," "pips," "tinctures," and "savory.")
I'm up to the letter "G," and already I have been willingly barraged by a Gertrude Stein quote with actual purchase ("It is not clarity that is desirable but force."), a top Urbandictionary.com definition for book ("an object used as a coaster, increase the height of small children, or increase the stability of poorly built furniture"), and an admonition (well, I took it that way): "Babble is the precursor to speech, babel the collapse of it. Full circle."
In short, I've been delighted.
I love these books-about-words books and the cunning outsized witticisms of their authors. Take Karen Elizabeth Gordon, who parses frequently confused words with fashionable fantasy. Here, for example, we are given the lowdown on unconscious versus unconscionable:
The sandman, sure of Miranda's unconscious condition and his powers of somnolent seduction, was less successful than he assumed as he tiptoed from her bedside: she was merely faking sleep before returning to The Hunted Reticule and its glittering denouement.
Come on. You needed that. I know you did.
Finally, may I share with you a favorite word from The Superior Person's Book of Words? Which would be "procellous," meaning, "stormy, tempetuous." If you don't like that, I yield to you "quakebuttock," which is, according to author Peter Bowler, "a nicely scornful word for a coward."
Earlier this week, another outsized wit suggested that I could do with a tad more "harsh."
Do you think he was calling me a quakebuttock?
new posts in all blogs
By: Beth Kephart ,
on 12/19/2008
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Jr., Roy Blount, Alphabet Juice, Torn Wings and Faux Pas, Out of the Loud Hound of Darkness, The Superior Person's Book of Words, Peter Bowler, Karen Elizabeth Gordon, quakebuttock, Add a tag
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: The Superior Persons Book of Words, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 1 of 1
By: Beth Kephart ,
on 12/19/2008
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Jr., Roy Blount, Alphabet Juice, Torn Wings and Faux Pas, Out of the Loud Hound of Darkness, The Superior Person's Book of Words, Peter Bowler, Karen Elizabeth Gordon, quakebuttock, Add a tag
5 Comments on Superior Persons, last added: 12/22/2008
Display Comments
Add a Comment
These all sound fantastic. I need to check my library to see if they carry any of them.
Fun!
These are truly wonderful books—and fun! I couldn't recommend them more. I just wish I could remember 5% of what I read. I'd be so much smarter.
I love K.E.G.'s books - especially the Dishelveled Dictionary. Her sentences are so amazing.
The subtitle alone made me curious about this book when I first heard about it.