The Little Book of Superstitions Omens & Signs by BH & VHM McKechnie

There is also a problem with organization in that some entries are not sufficiently self-referential. It seems clear the book was written in some sort of order which doesn't match up well with the order of use. If one is going to be using a book by randomly hopping into the middle bits looking up superstitions related to the word 'badger' then phrases like 'as stated earlier' and 'as we said before' are rather nonsensical. Since I've read through the first third of the book in its entirety I can tell you that it is, at times, inappropriately self-referential. However, as a reference work it has its shortcomings as well. Waring's definitions all have an infuriating sameness to them that makes one grit ones teeth and turn the page with increasing hopeful vigor as time goes on. When I was a child I read the dictionary and it's not all that terrible.

To this my diligent reader may say, simply, 'duh, it's a dictionary' but it goes beyond that. It's redundant, unentertaining and pretty poorly organized. This was that book.Īs a book to be read straight through this is fairly unacceptable. One book in the current reading pile, according to the new scheme, should be easily consumable in tiny interruptable bits. This is fairly unusual for a reference book but since I have recently instituted a policy of reading three books at a time it made some amount of sense. It's worth noting that I started this one with the intent of reading it straight through. It is merely a random book picked up from the ether.

For once this book has nothing to do with a GoodReads giveaway.

The Little Book of Superstitions Omens & Signs by BH & VHM McKechnie