Fun with the OED

So that you don't think I spend all my time reading chick lit, I wanted to tell you about a quirky book I just finished: "Reading the OED" by Ammon Shea. Part memoir, part dictionary of obscure and delightful words, "Reading the OED" is Shea's account of a year spent in library basements absorbing every page of the very famous, very long Oxford English Dictionary. Despite his increasingly intense migraines and utter lack of social life, he made reading the OED sound rather fun.

The good news is that we don't have to devote a year of our lives to reading the OED because Shea documents the highlights, including one of my favorite entries for the word "cellarhood," meaning "the state of being a basement." I can't imagine when I would use such a word, but I am determined to work it into casual conversation. For example:

• I plan to rescue my basement from its cellarhood by adding some drywall and a big-screen TV next year.

There. I challenge you to come up with a better one.