Book Review: The Superior Person's Second Book of Words by Peter Bowler

This is a book for the word lover - or merely the lover of feeling superior! There’s a word in here for every occasion you could imagine, and some for those you’d never think of. Instead of just definitions, it also includes examples showing how you can drop your new-found vocabulary into everyday conversation.

Words ... I love new words. Even more when they come with consistently funny definitions and examples. Some favourites:

Galeanthropy n. The delusion that you have become a cat. Not a particularly common disorder, but its mere existence compensates, at least in part, for the fact that so many cats suffer from the delusion that they have become humans.

Hyperhedonia n. A condition in which abnormally heightened pleasure is derived from participation in activities which are intrinsically tedious and uninteresting. For a case study near you, see any golfer.

Lygophilia n. Love of darkness. A condition experienced in its most powerful form immediately after one has received the electricity bill.

Resupinate a. Upside down as a result of twisting. ‘So sad about Bannister. Been in politics only seven years and already suffering irreversible resupination.’

But as entertaining as it was, I was still just a little disappointed. The words could be divided into two general categories: those I already knew, and those that I couldn’t see myself ever using - handy demonstrations of use or not.

Rating: B