The star of today's post for strangest book read.
Simple question for everyone perusing this post: What is the strangest book that you've ever read?
Caveat: Only non-fiction non-true crime choices.
Reason: We all know that fiction and its wonderful genres, sub-genres and sub-sub-genres can be...strange to a certain degree to everyone. So trying to come up with a fictional title that would qualify as strange would be quite difficult, because someone else's strange is someone else's normal. So fiction is eliminated because it's difficult/nearly impossible to come up with a viable choice that people can agree upon.
But non-fiction, that's a whole other pork pie. Because with non-fiction, you can generally come to a consensus about the strangeness/oddity of a given book. And trust me, since the heady start up days of the printing press back in the 15th century, non-fiction has always had that special singular ability to churn out some really odd choices for reading material. Also, no true-crime, because that is a whole different zoo of its own and I want to keep everything at least PG-13 or lower.
Pivoting back to me. I've always held a deep fondness for the non-fiction genre, as it was the very first overall genre that I had fallen in love with as a child and is the only genre that has stuck with me in for my entire life. No matter what sub-genre that has sprouted from it over the decades, I've probably sampled at least one from those sub-genres.
Over the years, especially in the past few, I've read some very quirky non-fiction titles over an assorted range of topics: animals {ex. barn owls}, historical events {ex. the Oregon trail} and national parks {ex Yellowstone}. But the subject of today's post has to be the strangest one that I've encountered and read by far: the Oxford English Dictionary.
This one I came across at my local library's gently used books store during my continuing adventures of finding a book for nearly any topic under the sun*, and this one really piqued my curiosity that I was more than willing to shell out $4 USD for it.
*for those of you who may be first time readers, I've been on a journey to prove a theory that you can find a book for any topic that you can think of. I have purchased several very odd books in support of that theory, of which three are mentioned above.
The premise of the book is pretty basic: it's about the people who help create the Oxford English Dictionary (this monstrosity was begun in the Victorian era and the main body was completed in the 1930's, with addendums being produced throughout the decades afterwards), with the chapters being broken down by the type of people involved (much like Sue Grafton's Alphabet Mysteries).
To give you a basic idea on how they were broken down, here is short list of four chapters:
- P is for Pornographers
- Q is for Queers (male or female)
- R is for Rain Collectors
- S is for Suffragists
Now, while these categories sound very odd, you have to remember that the bulk of the OED was originally created during the Victorian Age, so you know how publicly prudish/morally uptight (for letters P & Q), exceptionally odd (letter R), and politically active (letter S) people were.
Overall, this book was an exceptionally fascinating read, not only because I often wondered (in general) how dictionaries were created, but the rich history behind the creation of it (including the Victorian equivalent of a Kickstarter campaign to recruit volunteers).
If you enjoy watching shows like "How It's Made" or YouTube channels that feature quirky stuff like that, then you will absolutely enjoy this book. This book is my choice for the strangest non-crime book that I've ever read. So tell me, what's the oddest non-true crime book that you've ever read?
My mother worked with OED, and I (and some of my revolutionary friends) campaigned for 'Alright' to become an official word contracted from 'All Right', and subsequently added (around 1973 - or thereabouts).
ReplyDeleteWe had inside information of the mechanics. :D
My English teacher (Miss Millington [EEK!]) was not impressed.
She still haunts me.
I've been naughty...
Now that's a nifty fact to bring up in conversations. And it's very cool that you became tangentially involved with the OED.
DeleteYou wouldn't think that would be interesting.
ReplyDeleteI can't think of a quirky one. Some might find the novel version of The Perfect Storm quirky just because the book is nothing like the movie. (And far more interesting.)
I think I read that book back in the day.
DeleteThere are a lot of books that I've found/attempted to read that were extremely odd, but this one by far is the oddest. I thought for sure it was going to be dull as dirt, but it wound up being quite the entertaining read.
My new Cryptozoology book, "The United States Cryptids", J.W. Ocker 2022, is very odd. It dates how popular the sighting/s made the town and how they used it for tourist goods.
ReplyDeleteAlso I've never heard of most of the listed and illustrated creatures. I like the author's critical style.and the subject, because I am always learning.
Now that sounds like a very curious and entertaining book. Thanks for sharing.
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