The Professor and the Madman (A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary)

Okay, yes.  I read a book about the making of a dictionary.  And that might sound boring to you but it totally wasn't boring.  Simon Winchester's book, The Professor and the Madman (A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary), had conflict and tension, misunderstandings and history.  I really can't imagine a life without dictionaries.  This dictionary was written in the last half of the 1800's.  The Professor was an English professor.  The madman was an American civil war veteran.  Now it could be he was destined to be a person who suffered from schizophrenia or it could be his experience as an officer/Army doctor ruined his mental health.  What he was ordered to do, as a doctor in the Civil War, goes beyond anything I ever though would be asked of an United States citizen.  Ever.  He was ordered to brand the face of a deserter of the Army with a big letter "D."  I cannot imagine what that was like.  The deserter was a young Irish lad.  A giant D burned into his face ruined his life. Was it unreasonable that the madman thought the Irish were against him?  So, yeah, a book about a dictionary was totes interesting. And we had a great discussion about it in book club.  And I'm not telling you the most incredible thing the mad man did, cuz, wow, it's too weird to make up.  I loved this book. Great story!