A Book Just For the Fun of It

It's Monday.

Time to roll my chair over to my bookshelf and peruse my assortment of books. And, thanks to my addiction to bookstores and my dad's willingness to support my book habit, I've got quite a stash!

Here's a fun one for today:

In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World by Christopher J. Moore. Here's a few lines of explanation from the inside cover:

"Take a trip around the world of words and unlock the meaning of some of the most insightful, intriguing, and satisfying espressions on the planet, for which there are no English equivalents."

Here are a couple of entries to whet your word appetite:

• craic (Irish) "Where's the craic?" is the cry of any Irish person arriving in a new city. With an original meaning close to something like "chat" . . . the term now means the combination of elements all adding up to a good time--fun, laughter, music, and warm company.
• dast u del baz budan (Persian) [dast oo del baz boo-dan](idiom) This phrase literally means "the opening of hand and heart." It describes the idea of being free with your money, not being stingy, and having a generosity toward others.
• uitwaaien (Dutch) (verb) A most useful and attractive verb meaning "to walk in the wind for fun." It conjures up a charming image of Dutch people outdoors knowing just how to enjoy their landscape.

And, just for the record: it is not easy to type the word i-n-t-r-i-g-u-i-n-g, which I've had to do twice in this post, with many mistakes.

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