100% Friday binge-buy. And, like The Fox and the Star, I could not be happier.
OK. Half true.
Not about the “happier”. I’m very happy.
About the “binge buy”.
I heard about the book Thursday morning via a CBC broadcast. It was early morning and I was half-asleep, but caught enough of the interview to learn about how the 2007 Oxford Junior Dictionary had omitted a number of nature words … words like “acorn” and “bluebell” and “kingfisher”. At the same time, words like “celebrity” and “voicemail” had been added to the dictionary.
Thanks to my morning haze, I had more-or-less forgotten about The Lost Words until my local bookstore posted the CBC transcript. The article absolutely gushes about the book.
I was transfixed and called “dibs” on my bookstore’s last copy.
What I liked:
The Book. I think publishers are starting to figure out that book lovers love books. Look at this:
Everything about this book is beautiful. Its size. Its weight. Its illustrations. Its poetry. Its message.
We need more books like this in the world.
What I Didn’t Like:
Reading in One Go. I was so excited and so enthralled by this book that I arrived home, dumped my backpack, and immediately sat down to read. This book is better when it’s savoured slowly: put it on your coffee table. Read a page or two. Look at the pictures. Think about nature, life, and the universe. Continue with your day.
Favourite quote:
OK. Not from the book, but from MacFarlane’s CBC interview:
Why were these words taken out of the Oxford Junior Dictionary?
They were taken out because they were not being used enough. That’s the simple answer. It’s not the dictionary’s fault. This is a dictionary for children aged roughly six to eight. It doesn’t have many words in it. So they have to take hard choices about what language is relevant to that age group.
But the words that went in were very telling: in went broadband, attachment, voicemail, you get the picture. This was a moment in lexicographic analysis which spoke of a much bigger moment in culture, where childhood is becoming virtualized, interiorized — and nature is slipping from childhood, as it is slipping from all our lives.
The Details:
- The Book: The Lost Words by Robert MacFarlane; illustrated by Jackie Morris
- Published: 2018, Flatiron Books
- My Copy: Personal copy
- Read date: June 28, 2019
- Rating: ★★★★★
- You should read to this if you like … birds and whimsy and watercolours and being outdoors and a touch of melancholy
- Avoid this if you dislike … nature
The Geeky Jock 