new books

Fun day at work. Learned to price things, and hopefully I am doing well. Worked two hours at the register that went smoothly aside from one screwed up transaction. I don't mind working the register so much, except when it's horrendously busy.

My sections are all coming into order nicely, and I am quite pleased. Spent a lot of time working on the cookbooks today, and I think that's what I will focus on when I get Saturday.

Looking forward to having a day off already. Though it might be a bit strained since Karen's lame duck boy just flew away. I knew there was a reason I didn't like him, why his comment made me so angry and stuck with me. One of those out of the blue, inexplicable break-ups. She's very sad, and it hurts to see her this way. It provokes that weird sense of chivalry in me, that I should perhaps go challenge this boy to a duel or something.

Made use of my employee discount, three days into the job. A book on the history of cereal, which is fun reading already, and an old book about the Baptist beliefs for my grandfather. It will make a smashing birthday present.

Words

"This is a confusing and uncertain period, when a thousand wise words can go completely unnoticed, and one thoughtless word can provoke an utterly nonsensical furor."
-- Vaclav Havel, Czech dramatist and statesman

"...words are a form of action, capable of influencing change. Their articulation represents a complete, lived experience."
-- Ingrid Bengis, U.S. writer

bibliotaphy [n. BIB-lee-oh-TAF-ee]

Bibliotaphy is the practice of hoarding or hiding books, and someone who engages in bibliotaphy is a bibliotaph.

Like many "bookish" words, this one includes the biblio- prefix, from the Greek biblion (book), which also gave us Bible. The suffix, -taphy, is from Greek taphos (tomb), since the books hoarded or hidden might as well be entombed.

Another word from taphos is cenotaph [n. SEN-uh-taf] (an empty tomb that commemorates someone who is actually buried elsewhere), with the prefix ceno- from Greek kenos (empty).

Here are more "bookish" words:

bibliopegy: the art of binding books
bibliopolist: a seller of books, especially rare or used ones
bibliotics: examination of documents for authenticity