Book review — The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
Title — The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
Author — John Koenig
Publisher —Simon & Schuster
Page count — 288
First published — November 2021
Disclaimer:
I bought a copy of this publication myself.
Views presented in this review are subjective.
I review the book “as is” — I focus on what I see, read, touch, etc.
Photos published here are under the “for review” purposes.
Preview is available on many websites over the Internet, such as Amazon.
Some backstory — Fun fact, I’ve bought this book in April of 2023, so it took me some time to actually finish it. I remember taking this book to at least 2 vacation trips. Well, I’ve finally finished it two days ago.
It is a splendid publication.
Overview
This is a dictionary of neologisms, made up words that the author has been creating for years and documenting that on his blog — https://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/.
Some of those words got some traction online, like “sonder”.
I have read this book in full. There is an audiobook version available on some audiobook services.
How the publication is divided — there is “about this book” short introduction, six chapters, a short note on neologistics, on gratitude, and an index. There is also a “word of advice” page but it’s just one word “ollyollyoxenfree”.
Breakdown of this book:
About this book — an introduction
Chapter 1 — Between Living and Dreaming — “seeing the world as it is, and the world as it could be”
Chapter 2 —The Interior Wilderness — “defining who you are from the inside out”
Chapter 3 — Montage of Attractions — “finding shelter in the presence of others”
Chapter 4 — Faces in a Crowd — “catching glimpses of humanity from a distance”
Chapter 5 — Boats Agains the Current — “holding on in the rush of the moment”
Chapter 6 — Roll the Bones — “connecting the dots of a wide-open universe”
Neologistics
On gratitude — a short note on how the author is happy that his work came to fruition and that he got lots of feedback from various people online
A word of advice — it’s just one word ollyollyoxenfree printed on a page
Index
There are also several illustrations, mostly collages, some of which are indeed creative.
My opinion
This is a splendid, very creative publication for many different reasons.
First reason — lignuistics.
My educational background is computational linguistics and I am thus a bit sensitive to a language that people use, styles of writing, semantics, semiotics, so on. That is why I’ve got an interest in this book — a dictionary of made up words, that is not purely satirical. The author has describes a lot of new words, something around 200+, though I don’t know the exact number. Invented words are well though out, I’ve got some aha moment a few times while reading.
Second reason — creativity
One needs to be creative as well as stubborn to some extent to invent so many new words.
Try to invent one-two-three new words. That is a realitively easy task, usually resulting in a portmanteau of two or three other words.
Yet to create so many words that are named in a way that their etymology need to be read form the book AND at the same time provide sometimes verbose descriptions of those words? Well, it is a proof of lots of effort put into one publication.
Third reason — mood & atmosphere
The publication has a cozy mood due to the quality of paper on which it is printed, addition of collage illustrations and descriptions of some weird emotions and situations that previously had no name.
Physical vs Digital copy
I’ve read a physical copy of the book, although I do not have a special preference for a medium on which I’d read/listen to such content. There is also an audiobook which I think is a good way to experience this publication, yet I’ve decided to read a physical copy as there were some definitions in the text that required me to focus on the text and visualize what the author may have had in mind while writing those definitions as well as some nice illustrations.
Minor gripes
Maybe that the text is sometimes hard to follow due to sheer verbosity, but hey, it’s a dictionary after all.
Summary & Closing thoughts
This is in my view a work of art and it clearly shows the great deal of effort and creativity that the author has put into his work.
I recommend this book to people who are interested in linguistics to see how new words can be and are created, to people who are looking for ideas for their stories, be it romance, horror, science fiction or whatever as just by reading a few random pages from this book can give a person enough inspiration to go through with their own writing, and finally to people who like unique publications, something that is so original that it just stands out.
I plan to keep this book with me, read a few random pages every now and then to get some inspiration, let my thoughts wander, think about some impossible ideas — or just to read something creative from time to time.
Maybe invent some new words.
So let me close this short review with this:
Once you read a full language dictionary everything else will be just a remix. Though some remixes are better than others, as this book shows.
Thanks for reading and untill next one,
MJ
