Getting through Patrick Leigh Fermor's Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese. He writes like I think - run on sentences, endless lists, and digressions everywhere - so I'm enamored.
It'll take forever to fully share my thoughts on the book - but I want to share the words in it - because they might be enough to convince one to give the book a try.
From pages 150 to 230 . . .
- Espalierwise - a trellis or framework; support for growing bushes
- Chthonian - belonging to the underworld
- Hyaline - a glassy, translucent appearance
- Haversack - a small, sturdy shoulder bag
- Velleities - wish or inclination not strong enough to pursue (I heart this word)
- Ecologue - a short, pastoral poem or dialogue
- Solicitude - a case or concern for someone or something
- Tramontana - the Northern wind
- Quinquereme - Hellenistic era warships
- Fustenella - a stiff white kilt worn in Greece and Albania
- Opprobrium - harsh criticism or censure
- Simoniacal - making profit from sacred things
- Sartorial - relating to tailors or their trade
- Supercilious - haughtily disdainful or contemptuous; as a person or facial expression
- Mephitic - offensive smell; noxious
- Dilettante - a person that takes up a subject for amusement; dabbler
- Pleonastically - redundancy; the use of more words than necessary to express an idea
- Puissant - having great power or influence
- Corybantic - in the spirit of wild and frenzied
- Maenadic - unnaturally excited or distraught woman
- Kermesse - a charitable fair
- Inveighed - protest or complain bitterly or vehemently
- Anathema - cursed by ecclesiastical authority
- Bibulousness - highly absorbent; fond of alcohol
- Confabulation - to fill gaps in memory by fabrication
Have a read and let me know what you think?