To spend almost £25 on one book?

[fuzzpigFriday]

The book in question being the latest Oxford English Dictionary?

Just gave our old one to the charity shop I work in, so it can be recycled and they get money for it - it was falling apart, pages missing etc due to so much use. It was almost as old as me - I'm 24!

So, I figured I may as well get the most recent OED - old one was a Collins and was good but I have always lusted after this... £25 though

But I NEED a fabulous dictionary, don't I? I mean, the family bookcase would truly suffer without one... I'm right, aren't I?

Please tell me I'm right :o

YANBU to buy a dictionary, no. £25 is what the big ones cost. Some cost £30!

If it makes you feel better, I have a book that's over 50 quid on my Amazon wishlist atm. And I have one I bought at 49.99 - not a dictionary but something I really did need and knew I'd keep using. I love having it and the horrible price has almost stopping bothering me ... I say get it if you can afford it, books are lovely!

Err.... given that I have a 2 volume shorter OED, plus at least two others and an etymological one too I think you would be unreasonable not to buy it

YANBU, obviously!! Most hardback academic monographs I buy are around that. The first thing I did when I got my first academic post was to get on a train to Oxford with a fuck-off big rucksack, go to Blackwell's, fill it, and hop on a train home...

It is one of the best days I've ever had on my own :) I spent a third of my first month's salary that day - SO worth it....

RP that sounds wonderful ...

Oh it so was. Went the next year and cleaned out the Oxford UP bookshop, but that Blackwell's visit will always have a special place in my heart... It was 5 years ago and I still haven't managed to read them all because I keep buying new ones

Tbh, I think you're mad. can't you just google spellings?

Dictionaries are not just for spellings. They give definitions, reflect changes in usage, give etymologies.

Yes DM, I do know that. Was being a bit tongue in cheek.

Still think Google might do the same thing for free though.

The OED is subscriber-only online, I think.

You can look anything up online - kind of pointless with etymology though; the whole point is you can't tell a false from a true etymology unless it's your thing anyway.

I love books just for the weight in the hand/smell of pages kind of stuff, which I know is daft really. I've a complete works of Shakespeare and I could certainly get all that stuff online ... but it's not the same.

I find it odd lots of people would spend 25 quid on a pair of jeans, no trouble. But not a book, it seems.

YANBU.

Being able to afford new books makes me feel like the richest woman in the world, iyswim.

If you do want the OED online, a lot of community/ city libraries have it and you can join those for free.

Definatly a worthy spend, as is a good family atlas!

I'm trying to persuade dh that we can afford for me to spend £125 on a beautiful limited edition of Stephen Kings IT. He is not convinced. If I could afford it I would spend that with no hesitation, I love books

I did spend £25 on one book once.......Pre child though

£25 sounds good to me:)

You don't need a dictionary of any kind when you have the internet. £25 wasted I'd say.

Id chose a dictionary in print for my kids over google any day.

This is one of the standard practictioners texts in the legal field
Chitty on Contract

So your dictionary is clearly a bargain!

it's £25, i'm a total pauper and even i'm not horrified so YANBU. the OED website is a right bastard to use anyway so i'd prefer it old skool.

If it lasts as long as your old dictionary, that will work out at just over a pound per year.

Therefore it's a bargain.

YANBU.

sorry karma, couldn't tell from your post. It sounds like you did sort of mean it though.

The thing about googling for any of that stuff is that (a) there is a lot of crap out there, and (b) times when you want to look up a word aren't always times when you want to spend time googling and sifting out the crap from the good stuff; you are often in the middle of reading or writing something else and it is valuable to have reliable valid info at hand in book form.

Plus, with print dictionaries one of the main benefits is the stuff you see alongside or on the way to the word you are looking up. That doesn't happen with googling.

Hmm, have to admit an atlas isn't top of my priorities right now - though I did love poring through ours at home (dad was a geography nut) - I figured the info changes so often with country names etc, it'd need updating a lot, and so we will probably wait until the DCs are old enough to use it too - ATM we just have loads of more toddler/preschooler-friendly non-fiction. There is an incredible range! Most recent was a little book about ancient Greece as DD (just turned 4) is mad about Disney Hercules.

FWIW I do often google a word - and I was over the moon when DH got me a kindle as a present - but for non-fiction I just love browsing the shelf at home or the library, choosing the right books, and that thud as you plonk it down on the table ready for research. Ooh. :)

Very good point about supporting a local bookshop... As soon as I read that I thought OMG, I'm so bad, I usually buy online (and in my charity shop).

Then I realised, there actually isn't one in my town :( how shit is that? There aren't many independent stores at all really, recession hit quite hard I think. Two waterstones though, within 5 mins of each other

IT, happymole? YABU - it turns out to be a spider FFS! :o in what way is it special edition though, I'm intrigued?!