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The Horologicon cover art

The Horologicon

By: Mark Forsyth
Narrated by: Simon Shepherd
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Summary

The Horologicon - which means 'a book of things appropriate to each hour' - follows a day in the life of unusual, beautiful, and forgotten English words. From the moment you wake to the second your head hits the pillow, there's a cornucopia of hidden words ready for every aspect of your day.

Do you tend to lie in bed before dawn worrying? Then you have the Old English ailment of uhtceare. Uhtceare can lead on to dysania (inability to get out of bed) and other zwoddery problems, which many have suffered but few can name.

From encounters with office ultracrepidarians, lunchtime scamblers, and six o'clock sturmovschinas to the post-work joys of thelyphthoric grinagogs and nimtopsical nympholepsy, Mark Forsyth, author of the Sunday Times number one best seller The Etymologicon, unearths words that you didn't even know you needed. From antejentacular to bedward by way of nuncheon, at last you can say, with utter accuracy, exactly what you mean.

©2012 Mark Forsyth (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Horologicon

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderfully funny and informative

This book is an absolute treat - so good that I'm seriously thinking of buying a paper copy as well. It's a fantastic, idiosyncratic collection of rarely (or never) used English words, organised into a 'book of hours' or Horologicon - so that there are words related to getting up, breakfast, going into the office etc. It's very tongue-in-cheek and the only issue with it is that I usually buy audiobooks to help me get off to sleep, but I don't want to miss a word of this one!



Simon Shepherd does a wonderful job of reading it too, although it would have been helpful to have a few more spellings and a few less 'word - pronounced 'word'' given that this is an audio book and he's obviously already just pronounced it.

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21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

amusing and informative, great combination

Would you listen to The Horologicon again? Why?

I would, because its very funny and full of strange facts about the history of English words. It is an entertaining listen for someone who loves learning and likes a chuckle whilst doing so.

What did you like best about this story?

how everything relates to each other. the circle of learning idea is a brilliant one. the end takes you right back to the beginning making it easy and very temping to re-listen straight away.

What about Simon Shepherd’s performance did you like?

he was easy to listen to and had a charming way of dishing out the information to the listener.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me laugh. I had to hold back large smiles when walking in public though, so as not to make someone thing I was crazy.

Any additional comments?

This is a great book for people who love learning new things and new words too.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

hilarious!

a riot of educational fun that I enjoyed every minute of! wonderful presentation and clever inclusion of daily life

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great fun and brilliantly read

superb reading brings the book to life, even the list at the end reads like poetry

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

A Disappointment

What could Mark Forsyth have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

He was too close to the subject and, I suspect, too pleased with his success with his first book to be objective. This book is nothing like as interesting as Horologicon and even that was a book that was not good for a second read. He needs a better proof-reader who will stand up to him.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

His delivery was very flat.He appeared to have no interest in the book and gave the impression of being completely bored by the whole thing.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment.

Any additional comments?

I would not recommend this book under almost any circumstances.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

just no

Not as good as The Etymologicon which was fantastic.

Bought this book to get more from the author but wasn't interested in old words that no one has ever used

Didn't finish it

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great book

Well written and very funny. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys quiet humor.

I have The Etymologicon on standby but decided on this one first.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well worth a listen!

Simon Shepherd is wonderful as the narrator of this fascinating, and very funny, book. In an almost Stephen Fryesque way he leads us through the brilliant book of words and phrases that, sadly, hardly seem to get a mention in these modern times. Maybe, just maybe, if enough people listen, a few of them may come back.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Book of hours? Waste of hours!

It's really hard to determine the purpose of this book. What it certainly isn't is a serious inquiry into the etymology of words nor an exploration of words as curiosities. If on the other hand it's meant to be funny then you'd be much better employed listening to a comedian's work rather than this poor attempt to impersonate Stephen Fry without any of his charisma. A word's meaning is constructed through the lived context it is used in. Hawked up and left free-floating In the 21stC the terms are rendered incomprehensible and amount to little more than a man reading out a list of 'funny' word's in an RP accent.
The whole book is a mess, there's a huge mis-match of sources, sometimes slang and dialect sometimes Latin, words are drawn from French, Scottish and Welsh (all nations suitably insulted in that low level English way that's meant to be 'funny' but is actually just a bit pathetic like someones Brexit voting Dad, who claims they went to the 'University of Life' and who incidentally may well be the target audience for this book). It would be hard enough to make a book on language work as an audiobook without being able to see how the words are spelled and how they look on the page, but this free floating mess without choronology or often even attribution just makes for a stream of aural nothingness.
It's so frustrating as I'm really interested in the topic and the words themselves are fascinating but the purality of the sniggering public school boy comedy within which they are embedded sours any attraction for me. In addition, coming to this with some previous knowledge, I am aware that the author is making errors in some of his assertions and the reader is mispronouncing words too. Let's take an example;, "The Spitalfields Breakfast" which is a euphemism for a "tight neck tie and a short pipe" the author makes some glib assertion about it's meaning "dressing hurriedly and valuing tabacoo over food" (presumably based on his current awareness of Spitalfieds as hipster HQ) and thus utterly misses the point obvious to anyone with a passing knowledge of English Literature prior to the 20thC, or indeed Russian classics, that this is about poverty and smoking to stave off hunger is a classic trick for those who could not afford breakfast.
In the final instance then, if you are the kind of person who gets really competitive at pub quizzes or thinks certain politicians ability to quote random bits of Greek Classics are really impressive this is the book for you. For the rest of us lets just be glad that Mr Forsyth has decided to put his expensive education towards the churning out of these books, otherwise I fear some wealthy Uncle would have parachuted him into a plum job in governement where he'd be busy flogging off the NHS!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Hilarious and informative

Entertaining, fascinating and hilarious, I shall endeavour to use some of these very useful words! Well read.

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