The Dictionary of Lost Words

I was absolutely fascinated by the premise of this book, the era it takes place in and the history and people who brought The Oxford English Dictionary into being. I love words and authors who use them so exquisitely in their stories, the more lyrical the better. So a book which takes a closer look into language as it was being collected for the dictionary and how it is defined and used and whether that shifts depending on being a woman or a man, rich or poor, high class or low class was right up my alley. The book excels in bringing this piece of history to life and questioning the gaps that it left in its wake. I felt like Williams was able to capture the atmosphere of the Scriptorium and printing presses so well that I was sure I could smell the ink and paper. As for the story, it starts out strong and I was delighted by Esme as a child growing up and learning and being intrigued and curious about words and it clips along, even without much action, at the start. But as the story progresses, you'll need more patience to get through it. It slows to a crawl, looses a bit of the charm young Esme had as a child (though I get that's somewhat the point), but the biggest hurdle of all is that it loses its emotional connection. For a book about how words can capture people and convey so much or so little, I felt it could be quite dry sometimes and seriously lacking in lyrical writing. I didn't feel a lot at some pretty major points in the story, including some devastating parts that should have had me bawling- it doesn't take much to make me cry and I just....didn't. Esme feels very distant and I lost my connection to her as the story progressed and it felt more like I was being told events, rather than living, breathing and feeling them. Some things happened so quickly that if you missed a page you'd completely miss a major piece. So while I highly, highly enjoyed what this book is about, what it tries to represent for those who didn't have a voice in the building of the dictionary and for bringing to light a rarely touched on subject, it didn't quite reach the heights of a ‘best' or ‘favourite' book, but I do still think it is worthy story and I'm glad I read it. The bookish girl in me was still able to find a treasure trove of delight in many aspects of it and a new appreciation for both the dictionary and for words.