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beppe · 05-20-2010, 05:55 PM

Hello to all the distinguished members.

Allow me to present my modest contribution.
My reader has an English dictionary which is easy to use: two taps in the neighborhood of a word and a small window pops up. More deft taps and it becomes a full page of the dictionary. Which, with the excellent dictionary that is included, is a pleasure in itself.

I never felt the need of a dictionary while reading English. Reading the posts of this tread, I wanted to verify that my belief is well founded: I opened a page at random in a classical of 18th century (Gibbon, yes I am a men with a certain spectrum of reading interests, and Gibbon is one of the few pbooks that I did not put in storage after the advent of my ereaders) and quickly read the whole 2 pages understanding the meaning of all the words.

Now I have a contrary example. It has an happy ending. Last month I was reading, with the book Club, the Egg and I. Which cannot be compared with Gibbon in literary value, scope and content. And, after few pages, I found a word that I did not recognized and that I could vaguely guess from the context. I looked it up and found its meaning. And then, oh marvel, the expression "untrammeled girlishness" made me more than giggle. A whirling crowd of aunts, and friends of aunts, she cousins (cousinesses?), with their court of friends, sisters, friends of sisters, sisters of friends came to my mind and set it to a nostalgic, admired and amused state, that went well further the charm of the story itself.

There are no conclusions to be drawn by my part. Now, I am happier to have the dictionary in my reader.

05-20-2010, 05:55 PM	#102
beppe Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,161 Karma: 81026524 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Italy Device: Kindle3, Ipod4, IPad2	Hello to all the distinguished members. Allow me to present my modest contribution. My reader has an English dictionary which is easy to use: two taps in the neighborhood of a word and a small window pops up. More deft taps and it becomes a full page of the dictionary. Which, with the excellent dictionary that is included, is a pleasure in itself. I never felt the need of a dictionary while reading English. Reading the posts of this tread, I wanted to verify that my belief is well founded: I opened a page at random in a classical of 18th century (Gibbon, yes I am a men with a certain spectrum of reading interests, and Gibbon is one of the few pbooks that I did not put in storage after the advent of my ereaders) and quickly read the whole 2 pages understanding the meaning of all the words. Now I have a contrary example. It has an happy ending. Last month I was reading, with the book Club, the Egg and I. Which cannot be compared with Gibbon in literary value, scope and content. And, after few pages, I found a word that I did not recognized and that I could vaguely guess from the context. I looked it up and found its meaning. And then, oh marvel, the expression "untrammeled girlishness" made me more than giggle. A whirling crowd of aunts, and friends of aunts, she cousins (cousinesses?), with their court of friends, sisters, friends of sisters, sisters of friends came to my mind and set it to a nostalgic, admired and amused state, that went well further the charm of the story itself. There are no conclusions to be drawn by my part. Now, I am happier to have the dictionary in my reader.