This is a fascintaing site! It’s chock-full of tidbits and nuggets about word history and development. Lots of fun facts to memorize, just in time for the holiday party season! Maybe my wife won’t be too embarassed when I share that “January 5th was referred to as Old Christmas Day, back when the world was settling on a calendar”. That’s a nugget I picked up from this exhaustive article.
As always, my thoughts are cross-posted here and on LibraryThing.
This was an enjoyable book. It’s very “classic”, in that American Movie Classics Channel Jimmy Stewart kind of way. Everyone is soooo polite and proper. Everyone blushes and women drop their handkerchiefs.
The whole WWII-era spy plot is a bit flat. True, I was always wondering what was going on, but I almost didn’t care, that’s not what kept me turning the pages. The few spots of book talk made it worthwhile for me. There’s a part where the owner of the Haunted Bookshop (which has no ghosts what-so-ever) meets with all the other crusty educated book-ish types around a roaring fire with their pipes and some toddies.
