This isn't really the best book to read from cover-to-cover. It's more of a book to skim through in the odd moments: waiting for a bus, sitting in the waiting area of an emergency room, when the rocketship countdown starts and you've no buttons to press in your little display panel until it begins again, or, perhaps, for the dull bits during a skydiving trip.

What I find more interesting than the individual words -- creative and amusing as they are -- is the fact that all the new words are the names of real locations somewhere on our planet. The tying together of location names to things and actions that don't yet have names is the frosting on the top of the book's cupcake. I will never be able to thing of some of those locations the same again.

What I really would like now is an associated document entitled something like "How We Did It," chronicling the details of creating this book. I imaging that story would be extremely entertaining.

This prescriptive dictionary contains:

* Absurd, laugh-out-loud definitions

* Words for common experiences that I kind of wish I could remember and use in daily conversations -- but won't

* A viewpoint firmly rooted in the time, place, and opinions of its author

It's got a lot of personality (and some real gems - your mileage may vary). You can read it straight through without getting bored. But if it didn't have the Douglas Adams name behind it, I'm afraid this would otherwise have been lost to the mists of time.

This and Last Chance to See were the two books I put on my to-read list while reading
Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams. It feels great to follow up on a "to-read" while the desire is still fresh in my mind!

Definitions given to silly town and village names. Many of them should stick with you, and more or less all are amusing. A rib tickler.

What I though would be a more universally humourous dictionary of sorts, was indeed such... just not designed for non-British sensibilities.

This book is a wonderful piece of comedy. Some of the words will have you laughing very hard. Adams and Loyd take definitions that are without words, and using the names of places, finally gives them the words they deserve. Not only is this a fun read, but it does get the reader thinking about what in their world they cannot describe in one word, and ways to do just that. It has been said that a great writer can say a sentence in a page, or a page in a sentence, and with the words in this book, and the lessons taken from it, the latter gets much easier.

So, what DA and JL did was to take actual place names and make up fake definitions for them.

For me, it was kind of an iconic bookification of funny… but not haha funny.

But even though I didn’t laugh out loud very much, and sometimes contemplated quitting in the middle, there were two great things about this book.
1.tSometimes, they really, really came up with concepts that we really do need words for.
2.tSometimes, the words they chose really, really sounded like the made up definition.
3.tSometimes, just sometimes, they managed both at the same time.

They say the Eskimos have a thousand words for snow… and so it is with Douglas Adams and farts. It wasn’t all potty humor… but potty humor certainly got a fair airing.

The cross-referenced made-up index was particularly impressive, as far as commitment to the concept goes. Unfortunately I got bored by the time I got to the B’s. All that work for me to ignore.

I kept a list of the ones I really liked and was going to immortalize it here (while being funny about it), but apparently, ain't nobody got time for dat. This is as far as I got:

Aalst – one who changes his name to be nearer the front. (perfect example of good word use)
Abinger – One who washes everything except the frying pan, the cheese grater, and the saucepan in which the chocolate sauce has been made. (that would be my husband, circa 2004-2008)
Alltami - The ancient art of being able to balance the hot and cold shower taps (perhaps if we had a word for it, there wouldn't be so much crying of the 6-year-old)

Witty as always. This is really a reading book, so be prepared for that. Rather, a check-out-a-few-pages-every-few-days kind of thing.

A hilarious book that puts words to use that are just lying around, mostly names of towns ,some usual such as Vancouver. That is the technical name for those huge trucks with whirling brushes on the bottom used to clean streets. My favourite is Abilene which describes the pleasant coolness on the reverse side of the pillow

I suppose it's a looside book which I can't really read as I would a straightforward narrative. Instead it's a series of delights to be dipped into and skimmed. Both books are must and there is now a further in the same genre by John Lloyd - Afterliff. still funny and worth having but without Douglas Adams' edge of sharp wit. Living in Orkney, we have places that are more redolent of exotic names - Taversoe Tuick the famous victorian thespian - no actor he - and Hobbister Moor.

A very funny sequel to The Meaning of Liff. Frequently you will find definitions which make you laugh out loud, and you will wish that you could remember to use at the appropriate time (but you never will!).

Dalfibble (DAL-fib-ul) vb.
To spend large periods of your life looking for car keys.
Memus (MEE-mus) n.
The little trick people use to remind themselves which is left and which is right.
Smyrna (SMUR-nah) n.
The expression on the face of one whose joke has just gone down rather well.

Laugh out loud book. Don't read on public transport.