Call me old-fashioned, but I like it when books send me to the dictionary.
I didn’t always. In fact, it really used to bother me– I disliked anything that took away from the narrative flow of a book, especially if authors went out of their way to be convoluted. I could barely sit still in high school as it was; I had neither the attention span nor the patience for books whose language went too often beyond my grasp. Studying for the SATs was bad enough!
Even now I almost never actually stop in the middle of reading to look up a word I don’t know (though in the better writing I have seen, you often don’t need to because enough context is given to derive meaning). Instead I note words I don’t know on my bookmark. Then, when I finish the book (or when my scrap of paper fills up– whichever comes first) I’ll look up all of the words and print myself out a neat a little vocab sheet.
Ta-da! Learning!
Recently I finished Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Have you read it?
If not, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Engaging, haunting, and humorous (dry as well as whimsical; wonderfully European), it is the Brit Lit to end all Brit Lits. As the blurb by Sir Philip Sidney above puts it,
A tale which holdeth children from play and old men from the chimney corner.
Read it. You won’t regret it.
But to the point. Thanks to Mr. Dickens, I add twenty-some words to my verbal arsenal:
antipode: (n.) a direct or exact opposite
bagatelle: (n.) a trifle; an easy task; a short piano piece
buxom: (adj.) [of a woman] plump, well-endowed
chary: (adj.) cautious, wary; cautious about the amount one reveals
connubial: (adj.) of or relating to marriage
contiguous: (adj.) sharing a common border; touching; next or together in a sequence
contumacious: (adj.) stubbornly disobedient to authority
despondent: (adj.) in low spirits from loss of courage or hope
diadem: (n.) a jeweled crown or headband worn as a symbol of sovereignty
disconsolate: (adj.) without comfort; unhappy; cheerless
kosher: (adj.) food prepared according to Jewish law
lurcher: (n.) a crossbred dog (collie or sheepdog + greyhound) usually used in hunting; a prowler, swindler, or petty thief
necromantic: (adj.) divining through alleged communication with the dead
ophthalmic: (adj.) of or relating to the eye and its diseases
paroxysm: (n.) a sudden attack or violent expression of a particular emotion or activity
plenipotentiary: (n.) a person (diplomat) invested with full power of independent action on behalf of their government (often in a foreign country)
pugilistic: (adj.) fist-fighting; boxing
rapacious: (adj.) aggressively greedy or grasping
rubicund: (adj.) having a ruddy [red] complexion; high-colored
sagacious: (adj.) shrewd; having keen mental discernment
sententious: (adj.) 1. abounding in aphorisms and maxims; 2. given to excessive moralizing
truant: (n.) a student who stays away from school without leave or explanation; wandering, straying; skipping out
truculent: (adj.) eager to fight or argue
Enjoy!
Julie Israel 
Yes, it is indeed a brilliant work! Now, I cannot tell you a joy I just experienced by reading this piece and thus realizing that even native English speakers need to do what I always do – learn new English words! Guess what – I do the lists too!
Take Care,
Daniela
Wonderful! Your English has always impressed me, Daniela…and I’m sure will only continue to impress me more, especially if you are reading literature rife with words that even native speakers have to look up! Cheers 🙂
I absolutely LOVE reading books and every time I pick up a book I make sure to underline the words that I don’t know and then look them up.
Initially it used to annoy the hell out of me but since then my vocabulary has improved a great deal.
My thoughts exactly!! 🙂