read the entire dictionary

Another Friday night

my cousin and I make the trek to the
local Big Y World Class Supermarket

for the sole reason of reading the Y section of the dictionary.

So we sat in the cafe section, drinking Icees (coughSICKENINGlySweet), and reading the Y’s, of which there were 6 pages. We each read 4 or 5 entries then switched turns. It only took an hour and a half?

There were a lot of Asian words, again. Like places, mountains, people.

I think there were more exciting words in the Q section. But there were some good ones.

And, well, the next time I see someone I hadn’t seen in a while and I say “Wow, I haven’t seen you in years!” And they challenge me, I can refer them to definition three of the American Heritage dictionary, third college edition, word: years)- which states that years can be an indefinite amount of time (i.e. a long time)- I guess a hyperbole, no?

So we ended up reading the Q section.

It took a few hours.

For only 8 pages.

But she would read four entries, and then maybe comment on the words, and then I would read four more entries and we might start a discussion or ponder why there are so many definitions of the word “quarter” or why “question” needs so many abbreviations or why there are all these obscure words for foreign locations. Much of it was pretty dry.

But there were some gems that we enjoyed reading and that we may incorporate into our everyday vocabularies.

Like quintessential
quaff
quatrefoil
quixotic
quiz show
quash
quadrillionth

I talked to my little cousin last night, and we’ll be starting our dictionary-reading soon.

I have the Third College Edition of the American Heritage Dictionary and I’d like to read all of it eventually. We were trying to figure out where to start reading (because the A’s and Z’s seemed so boring), and we had an idea- Let’s start at the Q’s! And read it at this cafe we like called the Q! So we’ll be reading and trying to incorporate 8 pages of Q words into our vocabularies.

Cool beans, eh??

My little cousin said she’d like to read the dictionary with me.

Great!

I was thinking…. I’d like to do the One-Year-Plan [also known as the 26 step plan].

I just made it up. But it involves reading a Letter every two weeks. For example, First two weeks of September, read all entries that start with A. Last two weeks of September, read all entries that start with B. In that fashion it’ll take a year.

And I figure it’s okay if we use different dictionaries.

And we can get in touch every other week about progress and share favorite words and such.

Yes, I do believe that will work!

Woo! A plan!

Seeking a companion for this goal. Will start asking my friends. One of them has got to be interested! Who wouldn’t want to read the dictionary?!