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

[fedupofnamechanging]

DM I think googling (is that a word? Think I need a dictionary ) is as quick as looking something up in a dictionary, so I do think it is not a totally necessary buy. However, if 'necessary' was the only criterion for buying something, I would own a lot less stuff! There is nothing wrong with buying something just because you like it and want to, so if it makes the OP happy, then really that is good enough.

I am honestly not quite as thick as my first comment made me sound , but I think I would rather buy a nice art book for £25 and get the dictionary for free on the internet.

[Omarlittlest]

Are you kidding? Its the nicest thing in the world; poring over a dictionary ....an atlas or globe are the second best
YANBU

[AmazingBouncingFerret]

Yanbu if you want it and can afford it.
I'm tempted by a first edition of Game of Thrones for £27. Still pondering, i'm hoping by the time I go back to the bookstore it'll be gone and my decision is made for me!

[fuzzpigFriday]

Oh good grief don't get me started on globes - reeeeeally want to get the DCs one but again I think they are a bit young, things get broken too quickly ATM :(

[fuzzpigFriday]

What the Jeff is this game of thrones thing I keep hearing about?

[redexpat]

YANBU.
Have you tried abebooks and //www.find-book.co.uk?

[happymole]

Naughty Fuzzpig with spoilers

Actually the first run of the special eds is £1300ish signed. They all come with this

I am a crazy obsessive fan of Stephen Kings so for me it would be lovely. I once cued for 6 hours to get a book signed by him

I wouldn't enjoy a dictionary so it's horses for courses innit

[Fontsnob]

I frequently spend lots of money on beautiful art and design books (well when we had money I did) so yanbu. I love the first opening of a new book. So crisp.

[sungirltan]

yanbu. dh and i were given a brand new shiny one as a gift because we are scrabble geeks - we were both delighted!

[BoattoBolivia]

£25 is not a lot. Especially on a book that will last so long. My most expensive book was £70 second hand! That was pre-dcs.

[kayah]

worth having a dictionary at home

my laptop broke on 2 occasions then some days internet was appaling
kids use the very same Oxford dictionary you bought for their homework

I bought one on advice of my friend and love reading it for the sake of learning new words

[stuffthenonsense]

bargain! i love books and am always more than happy to spend money on good ones.

[GrendelsMum]

I love the OED online. I'm always going on and checking etymologies and first uses. One of my favourite things about my job is that I get free access to the OED

[LongWayRound]

YANBU. Even with the internet, a family bookcase needs some good reference books.

I've decided recently that I need a good hardback edition of all Jane Austen's novels - not all in one volume, my mum had one of them and it's far too heavy to read comfortably. Mine are paperbacks that are falling apart. I've found the Folio edition but I think that Folio books are way overpriced. Can any of you booklovers recommend something slightly cheaper?

[fuzzpigFriday]

We decided not to have a wedding list when we married a few years ago, it was only a small ceremony so we actually said don't worry about gifts. However when we were considering it, we both agreed that a new OED would be on the list! Along with groves dictionary of music

[izzywhizzyletsgetbusy]

YANBU. It's an investment that is going to last a considerably lot longer than a bottle of wine or a takeway.

The most used books in my home are a collection of dictionaries, a Thesaurus and a well-worn and outdated Atlas.

[LotteryWinnersOnAcid]

YANBU. Books are amongst the few things I will invest in.

[quirrelquarrel]

Dictionaries, fine, but ordinary books?

Not attacking personally, but over £100 on a mainstream book? I mean, it's the same words, isn't it. Nice bindings are nice. But gosh, they're only nice if they cost under £5ish more. Not if they cost over £100 more! Then it just becomes more mindless consumerism. And you can't salvage it by saying, "but- it's a book!", because it is really mindless.

I'd never buy a book for more than about £20 and that's def. pushing it. Most are under £1. If someone bought me a first edition of Wuthering Heights, I'd be happy I guess, but it wouldn't be read, because I already have my nice scruffy paperback with all the dog ears and exclamation marks. Can't document your exclamations on a thousand pounds book.

Dictionaries are fab though. I have eight. Downstairs there are about ten. Too many languages :o
All the same, if I'm reading a book in German, it's much quicker just to Google it. Cos I have to look so many words up! And in a dictionary, you have to have tunnel vision...don't let yourself look at any other words or you'll get sucked in and spend the afternoon getting lost...

[fuzzpigFriday]

Our dictionary got used an awful lot for flicking through when we got stuck on the crossword :o

[VanillaRooibos]

Well if you're happy with you're purchase. I, however, would not spend £25 on a dictionary or any book.

[JumpJockey]

DH got me the whole multi vol OED as a first anniversary present (paper and all). It will be handed on to kids as and when, and gets plenty of crossword use in the meantime.We also play the dictionary game - choose a word at random and see if the other person can guess what it means. This may make us sad losers but I don't care

Fuzzpig you will hate me but we also have Grove (DH does a lot of music editing and programme note writing). Let me tell you the story... our local indie bookshop was having a sale, and there were several vols of Grove on the trolleys for a tenner each. We wandered around gathering them all up and discovered they were all there bar about three. Put them behind the counter, and went off to fetch the car to carry them home thinking we'll find the spares on Abebooks or similar. We arrive at the front of the shop to pick them up, and guy says "Oh hang on, we just need a quick word". DH thinks Oh bums, they've realised they should have been selling them for £100 each instead of £10. But no, he says "We've just found these other three out in the store room, would you like those as well?" Bargain of the century, methinks.

[OTheHugeManatee]

YAN necessarily BU. I'd pay £25 for a dictionary. I think of books in terms of price per read, so while I wouldn't pay £25 for a novel (very high price per read) a dictionary gets referred to again and again so that's not actually that expensive.

But then I fairly frequently have to buy academic books with short print runs for my course, so have winced and coughed up £40 for a normal-sized book before that'd be more like £6 if it wasn't so obscure

[plupervert]

What nice people to meet on a thread!

OP, I once spent £99 on a two volume "shorter" OED, and even though I was a lot more skint then, I was pleased to do it.

I agree that atlases are also great, perhaps better than dictionaries. We had one in the office (shipping journalism) and it was ever a source of entertainment. Our work pub quizzes were smart-arse competitive!

[fuzzpig]

OTHM I really like your reasoning about price-per-read! It appeals to my maths-geeky nature :o

My mum runs a library and was always telling me not to buy books - novels at least. She and dad have looooooads of non-fiction though. Floor to ceiling bookcases etc.

I seem to be (unintentionally!) going the same way - don't buy fiction usually. And I am a few weeks away from starting my first job in 4 years - in a library :)

[TangerineQueen]

YANBU!

Family bookcase should have a dictionary - required for all kinds of family arguments! Plus homework and scrabble. And it's just nice!

I don't even want to think about what I've spent on books just for work this year though, let alone my little post-exam fiction spree!