The funniest book on dictionaries or lexicography that you will ever encounter. Stamper’s prose oozes wit from every syllable, and I quickly lost count of the number of times my family looked at me funny for guffawing at a particular phrase she uses. Also, my GOD, the footnotes. I never thought I would laugh harder at a footnote than I did at the footnote in Good Omens that explains British currency, but Stamper reduced me to tears of hilarity with a simple, 2 Word (“sense 2”) footnote. I’m giggling now as I write this.

Beyond that, Word By Word is a fascinating peak behind the curtains of modern dictionary production. She expounds upon both the history and purpose of dictionaries and the stories she tells are quite often enthralling—not just for word geeks or English nerds either, she spins a genuinely fascinating yarn that begs for absorption and rereading. It’s a stunner, folks, plain and simple.