Thursday, August 10, 2006

the books above

A good vocabulary is not acquired by reading books written according to some notion of the vocabulary of one's age-group. It comes from reading books above one.

-- J.R.R. Tolkien, 1959, Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien 298-99 (Humphrey Carpenter & Christopher Tolkien eds., 1981).

[Not that this really matters, but Dan and I weeded his grave.]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Does this mean I should resume reading while lying on my back, holding the book in the air?
My chiropractor told me to stop doing that. Then again, what's more important, to have a good back or a good vocabulary?
Incertidude abounds; the ocean of my mind is teeming with irresolute minnows...