Fun With Foreign Words

Back in March I shared a link to a list of English words that are no longer used but should be. The other day I stumbled upon this list of foreign words that we could use in English at Mental Floss.

The list does not include my personal favorite foreign word that has no English equivalent, Schadenfreude, but that's okay because Schadenfreude is used an awful lot in English (particularly in the corners of the Internet that I tend to frequent).

I'm disappointed that the list didn't include pronunciation; some of the words are in languages I've never heard of and there's no way I could pronounce them. I recognized one of the words, Koi No Yokan, because it's the name of the Deftones record that came out last year, but I didn't know how to pronounce it in November and I still don't. (On the plus side, I now know what it means.)

I appreciated that the list included Schlemiel and Schlimazel; I've known those words my whole life thanks to Laverne & Shirley, but I never had any idea what they meant.

Language Is Cool

I've always been fascinated by language; I think it's a pretty cool thing we humans have developed. I'm particularly interested in the ways languages change over time (especially English since it's my native language). The Oxford English Dictionary recently tweeted a link to the English in time section of its website. I haven't had a chance to spend much time perusing it, but the article I read (on nineteenth-century English) was quite good. I'll have to make time to check out the other articles. In fact, I'll have to make time to check out all of the articles in their Aspects of English section; English in use, Shapers of English, and Word stories all sound interesting to me as well.

If you're interested in the evolution of English, I suggest you spend some time with the OED online.

That's New

As predicted last week, I bought Veronica Roth's Insurgent at Barnes & Noble on Thursday. (It's phenomenal; I finished it yesterday. Can't believe I have to wait until October for the next book.) Even though I found the book I was looking for almost immediately after entering the store I decided to browse a bit because I hadn't been in a book store in months. In the end I bought two other YA books that caught my eye (one that was on my TBR [to be read] list and one with an intriguing title).

As I was excitedly pulling my new books out of the bag once I got home I noticed an extra scrap of paper attached to my receipt. I assumed it was an invitation to fill out an online survey or something similar, so imagine my shock at seeing "You may also like" in the heading. My Barnes & Noble receipt was providing reader's advisory service. I don't know how long Barnes & Noble has been doing this, but I think it's kind of neat.

The receipt listed five suggestions based on the three books I purchased and I think it did a fairly good job. Of the five suggestions, one was already on my TBR list, one was the sequel to one of the books I bought, and one had caught my eye while I was browsing. And of those three I'm almost certain that I'll buy Kiera Cass's The Elite soon (unless I decide that I don't like the first book, The Selection, after all, but I doubt that will happen because I read 120 pages today and I didn't really want to stop to write this post). Also, the list was not solely comprised of new releases; some of the books included were available in paperback.

Is this reader's advisory service a shameless ploy by Barnes & Noble to get people to buy more books? Maybe. But I have to support anything that makes it easier for people to find new books they might enjoy.

The Joy Of Reading Fiction

I read nothing but nonfiction last month. It wasn't intentional; it was just the way things worked out. I enjoyed it because I was reading and reading is one of my all-time favorite leisure activities, but it was nothing compared to this month.

I (finally) started reading Divergent by Veronica Roth a week ago and I absolutely love it. I've got about 150 pages left to read and I already decided to buy Insurgent, the next book in the series, on my way home tomorrow. I could've ordered it from Amazon, but I'm 99% certain that I'll finish Divergent tomorrow and I want to start Insurgent immediately. Besides, I'm going to the mall tomorrow night anyway.

I can't help but wonder, though, if I would be this excited about any novel after reading all that nonfiction. Or is Divergent really that spectacular? (I'm leaning towards the second option. I'd heard raves about the book from my best friend and my YA literature professor and I have to agree with them. Also, I'm pretty excited about the movie.) It seems funny, but I'd forgotten how wonderful it feels to lose myself in a novel. So thank you, Veronica Roth, for reminding me why I love reading so much.

Saved By The Bell

Or, more to the point, saved by the thought that just popped into my head to remind me that it is Wednesday. I had completely forgotten that it was Wednesday (and that I needed to blog) until I was getting into bed. Unfortunately, the key phrase in that sentence is "as I was getting into bed;" I am far too tired to come up with anything worth blogging. However, I committed to posting something on my blog every Wednesday and that's what I am doing.