Lynn shared this

I suppose these things make the rounds around the New Year, when people are thinking about self-assessment and bettering themselves. Lynn shared this vocabulary test.

I think I may have taken this one before. I tried to be really honest and not say "Yeah, I know that one" for words I've seen before but don't know the exact shade of meaning of, or words (like oneiromancy) that I know I looked up once but can't remember the meaning of (or which I could kinda sorta guess: -mancy means it's some kind of foretelling the future)

not to brag, but I scored 39,700.

I'm sure there are those out there with higher scores. I think mine is fairly high partly because I'm a scientist and know a lot of word roots and so I know words I might not use regularly ("deracinate"). Also having been a spelling-bee geek back in the day helps; I learned a lot of word roots then.

I also read a fair amount, though not as much as I'd like (or as I think would be best for me). There's also a report making the rounds about the alleged "state of reading" in the US lately. (Twenty-four percent of all adults say they didn't read a book in the past year. That number might actually be higher, given that some folk might now want to admit to it. I am assuming they count audiobooks as "books" so that people with vision issues - or issues with holding a physical book - would not be shut out of being able to say they read).

I don't know. For me, reading is entertainment and an escape, in addition to being the primary way I take in information. (My mantra, especially in the days before widespread Internet access was, "Don't know something? Go find a book on it.")

And yeah, there are multiple issues with the survey ("White," "Black," and "Hispanic" are not the only ethnic categories for Americans...). And I suppose some would argue that there's privilege inherent in having access to books (then again, my mom's family, who were not that well off and lived in a small rural area - they used the library, and they had books in the house - I know, because I inherited some from my grandmother). But there's still so much of our culture that refers back to things like Shakespeare and the Bible that not knowing those works makes one maybe a bit less able to navigate the cultural landscape.

Edited to add: here's a little chart from that vocabulary-test website, comparing vocabulary with reading habits. But what is reading "lots"? And what is "lots" of fiction? I probably read half fiction for amusement, but if you function in my work reading, fiction probably only constitutes 20% of my total reading....

I don't know. I guess I take a slight bit of satisfaction in knowing I read at least one book in its entirety last year ("Sense and Sensibility.") Oh, I read others....4/7 of the Harry Potter oeuvre (though a couple of those were re-reads). I think Bleak House I actually finished in 2012....I read a lot of detective novels, and some non-fiction stuff. And Diary of an Edwardian Lady.

But I start lots of things I never finish, or don't finish for a long time. I'm on the second or third restart of "Guns of August" (and actually haven't picked it up in a while; "The War that Ended Peace," which I am reading more actively is over the same topic but I find it more compelling and readable, so I might finish it and then go back to Guns of August). I never finished "Cahokia" because thinking about the human sacrifice, and how in that culture (or so the anthropologist is arguing) people were groomed for that all their lives, and went willingly to it, got me down. And I've still got At The Back of the North Wind hanging around, I need to pick that back up and finish it.


I don't know. I feel slightly ashamed at my tendency to start things without finishing them. I get distracted easily. (It happens with projects too).