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Mayra Altamirano mayraaltam762d — This book by Simon Winchester is a classic. I borrowed this from a friend, under the impression that it was a murder mystery (my usual stock of reading books are all fiction). But after the first chapter, I re-read the synopsis and couldn’t figure out what lead me to believe so. Anyhow, so this is a narrative of the how the English dictionary came into being. Right from the days when no one had envisioned the making of some reference book for English words, till the making of the first near complete OED i.e. Oxford English Dictionary. The idea of an English dictionary was founded on the belief that English would become a widely used language, since British colonies were spreading throughout the world. To preserve the language (just like the French and Germans had already done) and to make it easily available for use, a reference book with the words and their meanings was a necessity. The first prototype of the dictionary was created by Samuel Johnson. He picked a few people who would scan through books written in the 17th and 18th century and make a list of words with their meanings. This method was later on also used by James Murray, only that he sent out a note via pamphlets and magazines and newspapers appealing for help to the general public. The work done by people was voluntary. The drawback of Johnson’s dictionary was that the inclusion of the words in the dictionary was a biased decision. This was very well taken care of by James Murray when he first put down the rules for the OED. Even the story about how the Oxford press finally decided to publish the dictionary is interesting. Before I read this book, my thoughts never wondered how the dictionary came to be made. Come to think about it, its a herculean task to make a reference book for all the words used, with their multiple meanings and usages. Essentially this book is like our history books in school, with facts and years and names of people and the events explained in chronological order. No don’t put down the book, its not as boring as the history books back in school were. This book is written like a novel..and each chapter unfolds a mystery. Ofcourse the mystery here is not about who was the killer and who were the allies or the enemies. The mystery here is about how James Murray, who set of on this huge and nearly impossible task managed to get the project moving. It is about Dr W.C.Minor, who being treated in an asylum, managed to contribute a major chunk of words for the dictionary. It is about how two people from varied backgrounds, with the same set of interests, put in two very different situations meet and make the dictionary a success, while also influencing each other’s lives positively. The book is adequately informative. It does not burden you with too many facts and keeps the reader interested. After having read this book, looking at the dictionary will always remind me of how great and long drawn the efforts of all involved in its making were. (Yes, it took around 40 odd years to complete the many volumes. The first volume of the OED covered words from A-ant) I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone who would like to foray outside the fiction category.