Biblioperigrination – new word for an old problem

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I learned a valuable lesson about book reviews recently. That lesson is do not promise reviews on books you haven’t read yet. The photograph shows The Normans and their Myth, which is quite interesting but not riveting, so I haven’t actually finished it.

Same goes for taking care of books you’ve promised reviews on, as I’ve mislaid 50 ways to make you Home and Garden Greener. It’s easily done when you have piles of books everywhere. I suppose I could review it from memory, but I can’t really remember it that well – I’ve read so many books on this subject.

Reviewing a book from memory, particularly with my memory, could be a dangerous occupation.

The problem is that books seem to have a secret life of their own and are much more mobile than you think. I’m going to see if there is a Japanese word for that. If decided on the word for this phenomenon – biblioperigrination. According to Google there is no mention of this, so I claim to have invented the word. As it’s now going to be in my title and I’m putting in a bid to have it recorded as the first known use. I may write to Susie Dent about it.

I’m going to do The Elements of Murder next. I’ve read it, and I can see it from here, so there shouldn’t be any problems with that. I just need to make sure I’m reading fast enough to keep up with myself.

With that in mind, I won’t tell you what’s next, though I will tell you I’ve just had V. S. Naipaul’s  A Turn in he South delivered. It has been recommended by arlingwoman and I’m looking forward to reading it.

We’re going out now as I’m going to treat Julia to a cream tea. We breakfasted late on scrambled eggs, mushrooms and brown toast, so the cream tea will be a late lunch, which makes me feel better about eating it whilst on a diet. There’s no eating between meals, but if we have it as a meal it’s not a problem.

 

20 thoughts on “Biblioperigrination – new word for an old problem”

  1. beatingthebounds

    I like your neologism and will be using it at every opportunity, which means that my family will soon be very tired of hearing it, since this is a problem which I am all too familiar with. I offered to lend a friend two books recently, but could only find one. I also lost a Gerald Durrell book somewhere in the house whilst I was only a couple of chapters in to it. Highly frustrating.

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  2. Laurie Graves

    Yes, no doubt the Japanese have a word for the elusiveness of books. Hope the tea was delicious. If I ever come to England, I will be sure to lose ten extra pounds and then gorge on cream teas. 😉

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  3. higgledypiggledymom

    Just reading over the titles…salubrious…love the word and how it sounds, then checked on meaning. Totally deflated. The word itself may sound like one for the healthy uber rich, but I think of it in an opposite swampy, slimy way. Which could be also the same as the definition.

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  4. derrickjknight

    My least favourite subject on my Social Work training course was Sociology. I once cut corners on an essay that was based on a particular book. The tutor expressed surprise that my otherwise commendable effort did not mention a certain issue. That was because the review on which I had based my piece had not included it.

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    1. quercuscommunity

      Oh dear, oh dear. That last line brought tears of laughter to my eyes. To think that a man with the whiskers of a .
      patriarch was once a young flibbertigibbet. who cut corners.

      I presume that you learnt your lesson in later life and based all written work on at least two reviews.

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