One man’s junk

The other day I was dabbling around with an attempt to translate Moroni 10:3-5 into Latin, just for fun. This involved scouring the dictionary for words. And that leads us directly to the topic of this post: reading dictionaries is fun.

I’ve noticed that it’s not just dictionaries, either: reference works in general have an inordinately large and soft spot in my heart of hearts. Like, just the thought of it sends ripples of goosebumps up and down my spine.

At this point, around half of you are wondering if I’m serious, and the other half are busy filling out the paperwork to get me committed to the local institute of mental health. So I’ll attempt to explain myself.

First, I collect things. Books, office supplies, etc. There’s something ravishingly appetizing about a collection of things, whatever it is. (Granted, some things are less interesting than others, but it’s the principle that matters.)

Second, knowledge can be collected.

Third, I like being able to answer people’s questions. This is one reason why I’m going to become a librarian.

Fourth, reference works are just the facts, ma’am, undiluted and pure. No wading through miles of prose to find your factflower — it’s right there waiting for you.

I’m not sure if I’ve been able to persuade anyone, but when I open a dictionary, for example, I feel like I’ve embarked on a new adventure. Each word is pregnant with stories to be told. Each has its own flavor, its own set of clothing, its own personality. Some are spunky, others witty, others bland and boring. Running into old friends is always a delight, but the best is when I get to know those I’ve never heard of before, or at least only seen from a distance. And I can take them with me even after I close the book.

I get the same experience when reading gazetteers (geographical dictionaries), baby name books, encyclopediae, and most other reference works. A single word or line can be the trigger for an explosion of imaginative activity. Reference works are anything but boring.

How many openings do they have in the asylum? ;)

Hmmm, translating the Book of Mormon into Latin. Unfotunately the Lazy Web hasn’t yet provided a Book of Mormon in Latin yet (I’m pretty sure the Church won’t be doing so any time soon :-)).

But here’s an idea for everybody (maybe I’ll blog about it too…there ought to be a way for comments I make on other people’s blogs to show up on my own blog, maybe with a “In reference to…” link to the original blog):

What about the possiblity of using a wiki to do a community-translation of various works? Are there already wiki-based translation projects out there? In the case of the Book of Mormon, you could provide a page for each chapter, on which wiki editors could provide a Latin translation for each verse.

Just an idea…

Is it nerdy of me that I was super excited when I finally bought a copy of Webster’s 1828 Dictionary? :)

When I was a kid, my parents bought a set of World Book Encyclopedias. I would refer to them quite often as I was doing homework or having a discussion with my siblings (our set was used quite often to settle arguments about one thing or another). Inevitably, I would get caught in the pages–either another article would catch my eye as I was looking up the original subject, or I’d end up in a never-ending chain of cross-references. I still spend hours in the pages of dictionaries and, now that I can do research online, Wikipedia articles and such. My whole family’s the same way, so I think we’ll forbear filling out that paperwork for you, at least for now ;)

As a side note, I think it’s marvelous that kids have access to so many online educational resources these days, but I still feel a pang of sorrow for my future children when I think of that Encyclopedia set. Those heavy volumes were a grand help when it came to making blanket-and-chair forts. Hmmm…perhaps my college textbooks could someday serve the same purpose…

Jocelyn my roommate says that you can’t translate the Book of Mormon into Latin without her. (I think it has been one of her life goals or something.

As for your fascination with dictionaries…You are not alone. Jocelyn says that we are probably the only two people that understand. We also both love reading encyclopedias. Jocelyn says that she used to know all about roller skates, but promptly forgot. I liked reading the science encyclopedias growing up myself.

Here is a new word for you to look up, if you can’t tell the meaning right off the hand— triskaidekaphobia. That is our current new word of delight.

Oh Ann, that’s way too funny. We also had the big stack of World Books growing up. Blankets, chairs, and couch cushions, if I remember right :-).

Our set of World Books was great for pressing flowers and various other crafts. :-)

Haha, we had a grocery-store variety set of Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedias, but they basically served the same purpose. I remember looking up Morse Code just to make sure the Nancy Drew book that said that SOS was …—… was accurate. It is. :)
I still have a Webster’s Universal College Dictionary that made its way up to my room when my parents bought some kind of huge abbreviated Oxford for the office…now it sits proudly on my shelf in my room here at school, next to my Oxford Shakespeare. I used to use it, besides actual reference or settling spelling/definition disputes, for pressing stamps for my stamp collection, after boiling them off of envelopes. I also love language dictionaries…I stole my brother’s French-English dictionary after he quit French, and pilfered a Finnish-English dictionary off of my dad’s shelf.
And as for baby names books, I made my mom buy me one for three dollars once at the grocery store, back in 1998. I was 11. I still have it (I also recommend behindthename.com). But I think that was the beginnings of my reference book collection. That may have also been the year I bought my first Thesaurus (which I also still have). Anyway, Ben, you’re not alone.

Dan: An interesting idea, one that straddles the line between reference works (like Wikipedia) and creative works (like the Penguin novel project). I can see it going both ways — a translation is ostensibly an objective thing, but at the same time it’s effectively a new piece of writing, and tastes will undoubtedly clash. Who knows? Couldn’t hurt to try…

Connor: You know, I think this nerdy/normal distinction is backwards. In reality, nerdy should be the norm, and “boring” should be the antithesis thereof. ;)

Ann: Glad to hear there are others. :) The cross-references are one of the best parts about encyclopedias and other reference books, I think. (Dictionaries can work the same way, but not as frequently.) And yes, I too used our World Books to make those blanket-and-chair forts. Mmm, those were the days. :)

Julia: Well, if we get Dan’s wiki idea up, she’s quite welcome to hop onboard. :) (I figure that if Harry Potter is translated into Latin, surely the Book of Mormon ought to be as well. Of course it’d be a very unofficial translation, more like fanfiction than anything else, but you know. And afterwards? Classical Greek. Old English. Klingon. Who knows? ;)) That’s a good word, by the way. I myself am immune, having been born on the thirteenth, but it’s still a good word. :)

Dan: Mmm, yes. I miss those days. Even though I’m three times bigger than I was back then, I suppose there’s nothing stopping me from making a blanket fort even now. Hmm… :)

Laura: I don’t think I’ve ever pressed a flower. It seems to be a rather feminine activity on the face of it, but I can’t think of any reason why that’s necessarily so. I shall endeavour to pluck and press a flower by week’s end. :) (I don’t have World Books at my apartment, so I’ll have to use my Riverside Shakespeare instead.)

Haley: Mmm, the abbreviated Oxford. With the magnifying glass? Book dictionaries seem mildly threatened by online ones — since you can update the online dictionaries as often as you want, and it’s faster to search for a word than to page through a book — but I hope and pray that book dictionaries will stay forever. Language dictionaries are a lot of fun as well. I’ve collected I don’t know how many by now. (Ostensibly I could use them in my writing — for example, “Aslan” is the Turkish word for lion. I don’t know if Lewis looked it up in a Turkish-English dictionary or just came across it elsewhere, but he could have found it there.) And I finally bought a baby name book (60,000 or so) a couple months ago. Now I’ve got rhyming dictionaries, thesauri, cultural dictionaries, language dictionaries like crazy, and a number of those Oxford reference books (architecture, contemporary world history, etc.). Mmm. It’s been a while since I last bought a reference book, come to think of it. Hmm, when does the bookstore open? :P

Ben this is totally off topic, but I had to comment on your use of food-related adjectives: juicy, ravishingly appetizing, etc. You know I just can’t help but picture sitting in the middle of a set of encyclopedias and slowly drizzling strawberry syrup over them and…okay that’s getting too kinky! Anyway, are you hungry a lot? Go eat some of that yummy BYU ice cream for me!

Re: triskaidekaphobia. I guess it says something about me that I already knew this word. I, too, was born on the 13th, so I’m more of a triskaidekaphile. Good number. :)

Ali: LOL :) I guess I do always use food-related adjectives, don’t I. And lately I seem to be using “pregnant” a lot — words pregnant with meaning, that sort of thing. Probably comes from Vergil’s Aeneid and my Latin professor. Anyway, I’ll try eating more and see if that makes a difference. ;)

Rikker: You’ve taken the words right out of my mouth. We should start the Triskaidekaphile Club. Though these days anything with a “-phile” ending is dangerous territory…