I love the premise. I've subscribed to the email service for years. And yet, I'm not sure if these are words I've seen there before or not. I suppose that just reinforces the idea that learning must be either Active or at least Repetitious - a single passive exposure to a new datum isn't enough to imprint it upon the memory.

Certainly the format here presents nothing new, unfortunately, but a tidying-up. Each chapter is five words (one week) long, with anecdotes about some of the words provided by subscribing fans, and nifty miscellaneous quotations at the bottom of most pages.

If you've not subscribed to the service yet, start now, and read this book (and its companion, [b:A Word a Day: A Romp Through Some of the Most Unusual and Intriguing Words in English|755859|A Word a Day A Romp Through Some of the Most Unusual and Intriguing Words in English|Anu Garg|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347319853s/755859.jpg|741975], to get caught up on some of what you missed.

And do be an active reader. When you find one of the words intriguing, try to use it in your next conversation, or at least write it down in a sentence that reveals its meaning. Otherwise you'll probably find, as I did, that the learning doesn't stick, and the time spent reading the book is mostly wasted.

ETA/done.

My notes say my favorite new words are sciolist and ubiety. But I have to look them up to remember what they mean. However, I don't blame the author for my laziness, and so am still recommending this to *everybody.* ( )

http://dhamel.typepad.com/book_blog/2006/08/garg_anu_anothe.html
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