Book Review - Wanted Words

I've discovered that I am a Herbicidal Maniac who often puts things in my Cacheblanca and I suffer regularly from Aneurythms, Namenesia, and Interangst. My husband suffers from Powernoia and Napsnaps and my daughter often wakes in the morning Sheetfaced.

Confused? You will be until you become familiar with some of the words, all created by fellow Canadians, to express things in our society that don't have a name. While perusing a small thrift store in my neighbourhood I came across a small book entitled "Wanted Words From Amalgamots to Undercarments. Starting in mid-2000 CBC Radio One's "This Morning" program put out a call for things and processes that didn't have a name. Listeners wrote emails, sent faxes and phoned in words that filled gaps in the English language.

The book is not only entertaining but I am definitely going to be using and introducing you to some of the the words that somehow really capture those unnamed niches.

Herbacidal Maniac
-noun
a person who kills plants; the opposite of a green thumb. (Jeff Daniels, Kitakami-shi, Japan)
Totally me; I don't think I've had a living houseplant for at least 10 years. Someone brought me a plant recently and it's sitting on my counter. I'm trying to take care of it, really I am, yet I'm watching it slowly die....

Cacheblanca
-noun
a place for safekeeping; valuables, once stored there, are irretrievable because its location cannot be recalled. (Raymond Gallant, Neguac, NB)
The latest thing to go into my Cacheblanca? One of my flash drives; and I should also mention this is often the place I put my glasses whenever I get into the shower.

Anuerythm
-noun
the term for a song that sticks in your head, usually against your will. (Rick Spanjer, Moose Jaw, SK)
They list a number of songs that listeners felt were the greatest anuerythms of all time: Monday, Monday; Stayin' Alive; New York New York; Pink Panther Theme; Beethoven's Fifth Symphony; Goldfinger; I will Survive; Feelings, Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head; Hotel California; Don't Worry, Be Happy; Muskrat Love; and anything by ABBA. I bet you are really thanking me about now for listing off all those songs......
Happy Humming!

Namenesia
-noun
the inability to recall the name of someone, even though you know his or her face. (Pat Brown, Sidney, BC)
My biggest fear when I'm at conference, assemblies or meetings.

Interangst
-noun
the waiting period between swiping your credit or debit card and getting approved or denied by the bank. (Joanna McGarvie, Ucluelet, BC)
I never used to suffer this angst until my debit card got cancelled & the bank hadn't had a chance to contact me yet. I had to borrow money from an acquaintance & I could tell that they thought I didn't have enough money in my bank account for a $3.00 coffee!
Powernoia
-noun
an irrational fear of authority, of "getting caught," when you have done absolutely nothing wrong. (Noel Griffin, Vancouver, BC)
My husband suffers from this every time we got through the US/Canadian Border. The guard asks "What city are you all from?" He answers Canada. "What's your country of birth?" He answers Vancouver. "Where are you going?" He answers Orlando (FL) when we're going to Ontario (CA) or San Diego when we're going to San Bernadino. Now I drive until we get to Bellingham.

Napsnaps
-noun
the full body twitch and jerk that often snaps a person out of a sleep just as he or she is drifting off. Sometimes accompanied by a dream of falling or colliding with something. (Ludvick Prevec, Burlington, ON)
The bane of my bedtime existence and the cause of many sleepless hours. I also like some of the other words submitted such as slumberjolt and I think my favorite, slumberjerk!

Sheetfaced
-adjective
having lines on one's face made by pillows and sheets. (Ron Boyle, Careleton Place, ON & Paul Sullivan, Victoria, BC)
My worst experience with this was when we had a layover in an airport and I decided to catch a cat nap. I lay down and used my purse for a pillow. Of course I was awakened during the last call and we ran to the gate. The attendants and Bruce started killing themselves laughing; the lattice pattern of my purse was deeply entrenched on one side of my face.

Wanted Words is a definitely a keeper as far as I'm concerned and a must have for any word lover. After doing an Internet search it appears that this book was a bestseller along with its 2001 sequel, Wanted Words 2-Armajello to Yawncore and they are both sold out at Chapters/Indigo. I have been left hungering for more of these language gap words so I'll be watching at my thrift store and checking out some used book haunts. Oh, and and if you wouldn't mind, can you all check out your Cacheblanca's to see if you might happen to have an extra volume hanging around? Then again, never mind. You'll never be able to find it anyway.

Salynne ©2010

Pictorial Websters - The Making of a Book

John Carerra discovered his grandfather's old tattered copy of the Webster's Pictorial Dictionary under a chair and decided to reprint it. See what this fascinating ten year labour of love involved.
Pictorial Websters-Inspiration to Completion Video

The Leather & Deluxe Leather Bound 100 edition books run between $3500.00 and $4600.00 US dollars at the creators website, Quercus Press. Fortunately for us mortals there is a more realistic Trade Edition that is on sale for $26.33 on Amazon.ca . I also saw these last week at one of our favorite haunts, a fabulous little store on West Broadway called Stepback; although since they were closed I don't have any clue as to the price.

Salynne ©2010

The Home Library - More than Decoration

Years ago I read a book called Decorating Rich: How to Achieve a Monied Look Without Spending a Fortune. The authors show how to get the feeling of opulence through a collection of items that you would expect to see in a wealthy persons home; an animal print chair cover, a paisley shawl and the ever regal and organized floor to ceiling library.

For book lovers like myself having a library is not about decorating but about surrounding yourself with the things that you love. Sometimes its the words written inside a book, the way the lines and verse speak to your soul; other times it's the publication itself, the quality and feel of the paper or the vibrancy of its illustrations. Holbrook Jackson said it well, "Your Library is Your Portrait".


Now there's even more reason to fill your shelves with books; research shows that having a library gives school children a decided advantage over their peers. The article "Home Libraries Provide Huge Education Advantages" explains that researcher M.D.R. Evans has compiled data to show that a home library is a "reflection of a family’s “scholarly culture,” or a “way of life in homes where books are numerous, esteemed, read and enjoyed." If children are used to reading and find enjoyment in books while growing up the chances they will enjoy and do better in school is that much higher.

The writer of the article Tom Jacobs concludes that "mom and dad don’t have to be scholars themselves; they just have to read and respect books, and pass that love of reading down to their children." I cannot think of a better reason to have a library.

Salynne

Virtual Books-The Rare and Unusual

I have written about this topic before briefly but I want to encourage you to check out one of the most amazing opportunities you will have when it comes to rare and unusual books. Several times in museums I have experienced the frustration of looking at an exquisite book through glass and wishing that I could turn the pages-now it is possible.

The British Library has created a program called "Turning the Pages" which is a software that allows you to leaf through incredibly rare and fragile documents and even magnify details. It may be difficult to understand until you try it but it is exactly like opening a book and turning the pages.

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/virtualbooks/viewall/index.html#

Their list of current books is not large but growing every day so there should have something you'll enjoy:
A Landmark in Medical History-16th century treatise
Alice's Adventures Underground-written and illustrated by Lewis Carroll

Baybar's Magnificent Qua'ran-Arabic calligraphy
Bible from Ethiopia-commissioned around 1700
Blakes Notebook-sketches and poems
Classic of Botanical Illustration-remarkable herbal
Codex Sinaiticus-selections from a 1,600 year old bible
Dutch Baroque Gardens
First Atlas of Europe-1570's
Flemish Masters in Miniature
Glimpses of Medieval Life-Luttrel Psalter
Glorious Hebrew Prayer Book
Henry the VIII's Psalter-1540 with Henry's own notes
James Gilray Satirical Prints
Jane Austen's early work-The history of England in her own hand
Leonardo's Codex Arundel
Leonardo da Vinci Selection-a selection of his sketches
Lisbon Hebrew Bible-survivor of 15th century Jewish culture
Masterpiece of the Renaissance-Sforza Hours
Mozart's Musical Diary-the composers own notes
Outstanding 15th Century Church Book
Pinnacle of Anglo-Saxon Art
Ramayana-India's great epic in 17th century paintings

I don't know which I could say is my all-time favorite but I have been returning every day for at least the past week to take glimpses into these treasures. Seeing Lewis Carroll's handwritten and detailed illustrated book highlights the great love & care he put it into it and it inspires me to write my own stories; the brilliant colours in Dutch Baroque Gardens make me want to start planning my garden for next spring; when I see Jane Austen's work in her own hand I can vividly imagine her sitting at her little writing table; and for me as a Christian, seeing one of the oldest bibles in the world is positively faith-strengthening.

For centuries access to these publications has been imited and now we have the opportunity to enjoy them to full so I wonder what amazing stories or inspiration are possible.

When you have a few moments please be sure to check them out!

Salynne ©2009

Who Knew? Free Books Online!

You don't have to go to the library anymore to help you find those books on your "To Read" list. My daughter has downloaded books such as Pride and Prejudice onto her mp3 and now always has something to read no matter where she goes. Who knew?

http://www.readprint.com/
This is a free online library with authors like Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Lewis Carroll, Victor Hugo, Keats, Kipling, Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Wordsworth.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Project Gutenberg-over 28,000 online books for free

Books-On-Line
Over 32,000 completely free online books.

Classical Literature Library
1,258 classical fiction and nonfiction e-books.

Great Books Index
Books from mankind's greatest minds.

The Internet Public Library
Online texts collection contains over 20,000 titles.

The On-Line Books Page
Searchable database of over 20,000 online books.

Open Directory Project
A directory of online books-somehow I don't think you'll find classics here.

Modern English Collection
2,722 titles from AD 1500-present.

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/index.html
The British Library Online Gallery-this is the most exciting one as far as I'm concerned. You can actually see the books, turn the pages, and magnify details. Books include: A selection of Leonardo DaVinci's sketches, the Codex Sinaiticus, Alice's Adventures Underground, Mozart's Musical Diary and Jane Austen's Early Works among many, many others. What a fabulous way to have access to rare publications!

Since I now have my daughter's old mp3 player I'm going to give "virtual" book reading a try. I'm hestitant and not sure whether I'm going to enjoy reading this way--there is something to be said for turning crisp pages, the smell of the ink on the page and pondering illustrations but I can see the advantages when you're forced to wait somewhere & don't have a book with you.

I'll let you know how it goes.



Salynne ©2009

The BBC Meme-100 Books List

Meme [meem--rhymes with gene, dream, cream)
n. A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another; a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.

One of the latest Memes to hit Facebook and email is the "BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books listed." It then asks, "How do your reading habits stack up?" I have not been able to authenticate this and there seem to be a lot of theories on how it has become established; generally though, its basis is thought to be the 2003 BBC Big Read search for the nation's best loved novels but it has obviously morphed to include a number of more current books as well. There are several incarnations of this "test" and since it looks like fun and has to do with books I've decided to try it. Special thanks to M for sending it to me!

1) Look at the list and put an 'X' after those you have read.

2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.

3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X+ (re-read at least once a year)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien X
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (never read and never will)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X
6 The Bible (all of it!) X++ (several times-a continuous lifetime project)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte X
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy X
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare X+
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier*
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger X
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger X* (working on right now)
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot X
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell X
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens*
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy X
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carrol X

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy X
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens X
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (read some of them)
34 Emma - Jane Austen X+ (re-read once a year)
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen X+ (re-read once a year)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini X
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden*
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins X* (working on)
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery X
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood X
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel X (loved it until the end-then hated it)
52 Dune - Frank Herbert X
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen X+ (re-read once a year)
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens X
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon X
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez*
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck X
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas X
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville X
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X+
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray*
80 Possession - AS Byatt*
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker X
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro X
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert*
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry*
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X+
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X+
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery X
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams X
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas X
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo X

Total Books Read: 58

Obviously, the "test" doesn't mean anything--if you look at the books that you have to read in school most people will reach the six and beyond. If anything it was a good exercise in reminding me of a few books that I've been wanting to read and have neglected. Time to get out my library card.

I'd love to see your list!

Salynne©

Read Everything-Books, Books, & More Books

As a writer I've always believed that you should also be an avid reader. Today that was confirmed. YouTube is a rich resource for writers; there are plenty of "how to" videos and this one by Claire Cooke, author of several novels, including Must Love Dogs supports that view.

When it comes to my own reading I fluctuate between more serious novels and what I call mindless distraction literature--mostly chick lit of some kind.

So I'll start with a list of my all-time Favorite Novels:

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer/Annie Barrows

A Year in Provence (also Toujours Provence) - Peter Mayle

Persuasion - Jane Austen

Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen

Brother Cadfael Mysteries (I love them all!)

Madeline - Ludwig Bemelman's

The Tea House on Mulberry Street-Sharon Owens

The Girl with the Pearl Earring-Tracy Chevalier

Recently Read or Reading:

Letters from Yellowstone (fast becoming a favorite)

Sundays at Tiffany's-James Patterson

Hot to Trot-Lou Wakefield

The Pilots Wife-Anita Shreve

The Kite Runner-Kahled Hosseini

Rachael's Holiday-Marian Keyes

Looking Forward to Reading:

Girl in Hyacinth Blue-Susan Vreeland

Me & Mr. Darcy-Alexandra Potter

Five Quarters of the Orange-Joanne Harris

The Handyman-Linda Nichols

The Time Traveler's Wife-Audrey Niffenegger

What are you reading?

Salynne©2009