Recently I changed feed readers and magically caught up on all outstanding posts…ie the new one has a panic button to mark all unread :) Once more I am trying to keep on top daily without getting behind or being intimidated by how far behind I am. Importantly I’m reading some of the word oriented feeds again such as the OUP blog where I came across an amusing article on absurdities in the OED. It’s a decent piece exploring some of the more obscure entries in the dictionary; one of the more amusing pieces was:

unpoetic: cf. next.
unpoetical: cf. prev.

The comments are also worth reading. Reading elsewhere I came across a rather scary book of nursery rhymes…well known nursery rhymes have been changed with the introduction of christian references. I really don’t like this sort of thing and find it somewhat offensive, and perhaps a little dishonest. Regardless of philosophy or religion, the original rhymes should be retained and not fall victim to this sort of propaganda.

Then of course there’s the joy of moving books around, instead of words.  As a few folk know, I’m about to sell my house and it will be officially on the market in the next week or two. My sister and I are joint owners and we’d each like to get our own places. Trouble is, as others have discovered, I’m having the unenviable task of moving from a house size library to an apartment size library. I can’t afford to buy a house in my area though a unit might be possible, even then we’re talking in high double figure square metres. Serious ouch! True, I have a few too many books and have already weeded a few hundred…admittedly they’re in boxes at my girlfriend’s place, hopefully I’ll take them to a second hand shop soon. I have at least a couple of thousand books; I still have dad’s 3,000 odd books though I’ll be getting rid of most of those (planning to keep 10% at most). Plus I reckon my girlfriend has at least a couple of thousand that I need to work out space for. Needless to say there’s a whole bunch of things about this move I’m not looking forward to, but it does at least mean I get to re-visit some of my books, albeit quickly as they enter the box.