Used volumes of the OED?

[ulmont]

Anyone know a source to acquire the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary slowly, a volume at a time?  All I see are the big monster set all at once.

[sbr]

Page at a time from the local library?   

[Darth Wagtaros]

That is pretty fucking fucked up. 

Why not go to eBay. 

[ulmont]

Why not go to eBay.

Same gig, shorter set or 20 volumes at once.

Why not just pony up and stick the set on a credit card and pay off as and when you can afford to.


Alternatively why not just buy the two volume Shorter OED, won't the cover 90% of your normal queries ?   And I know you can buy decent 2nd hand copies quite reasonably, probably under $50.

My brother was looking to acquire the set slowly as gifts, maybe 4 volumes a year or something.  I don't see any viable source for individual volumes, though, so I figured I'd ask.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Why not go to eBay.

Same gig, shorter set or 20 volumes at once.

Why not just pony up and stick the set on a credit card and pay off as and when you can afford to.


Alternatively why not just buy the two volume Shorter OED, won't the cover 90% of your normal queries ?   And I know you can buy decent 2nd hand copies quite reasonably, probably under $50.

My brother was looking to acquire the set slowly as gifts, maybe 4 volumes a year or something.  I don't see any viable source for individual volumes, though, so I figured I'd ask.

That could be the basis of a novel/play; a man of limited means decides to educated himself by buy one volume of The O.E.D each year, so initially in the first year he can only socially engage on subjects from A-Am. 

It would be the feel good hit of the year.  Get Tom Hanks or someone to be in it as the lovable hero.

[garbon]

Get Tom Hanks or someone to be in it as the lovable hero.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Eh. he was floating around my brain for something else and though that he could pull it off. I never saw that movie with him in the airport but educating himself, one volume at a time, and eventually passing the bar exam isn't that different.

[The Larch]

Why not go to eBay.

Same gig, shorter set or 20 volumes at once.

Why not just pony up and stick the set on a credit card and pay off as and when you can afford to.


Alternatively why not just buy the two volume Shorter OED, won't the cover 90% of your normal queries ?   And I know you can buy decent 2nd hand copies quite reasonably, probably under $50.

My brother was looking to acquire the set slowly as gifts, maybe 4 volumes a year or something.  I don't see any viable source for individual volumes, though, so I figured I'd ask.

That could be the basis of a novel/play; a man of limited means decides to educated himself by buy one volume of The O.E.D each year, so initially in the first year he can only socially engage on subjects from A-Am. 

Already done in "Friends", in an episode where Joey buys a volume of an encyclopedia because he can only afford one at the moment, and memorizes it, then steering all conversations to stuff beginning with "V".

[sbr]

Eh. he was floating around my brain for something else and though that he could pull it off. I never saw that movie with him in the airport but educating himself, one volume at a time, and eventually passing the bar exam isn't that different.

That is the same movie I thought of first, I wonder why.

[saskganesh]

sure, Tom Hanks, by default, gets all the Jimmy Stewart everyman-type roles.

anyhow, this has been done before, but for a feature, it needs to be updated a bit. Mr. Hanks could be a laid off IT executive, turning his back on the modern digital, information-on-demand world, rediscovers the perennial realm of books. He seeks wisdom and perspective through the OED, but of course finds love with

a) a librarian. played by Anne Hathaway.
b) who is also a slasher fan fic writer
c) who manages to sign a book deal that is Kindle-only
d) bringing tension to the relationship
e) resolved only when the lovers track the legendary secret volume of the OED that is locked up at the Vatican library. The unscrupulous Librarian Cardinal Fang (Chris Walken?) has plans to turn it into a palimpsest. The lovers defeat Fang and  save the ms. Many explosions involved, books are destroyed, but not the ones that *matter*

A meditation on true love, the nature of truth and the role of the written word. And explosions. Christmas 2010.

[Darth Wagtaros]

And in the last scene he sits alone after a nuclear holocaust, crying because his reading specs are broken.

[saskganesh]

... way to kill the Xmas market Wags.