Some musings on being a reader

I have been a reader on the OED for 17 years and have moved from books to periodicals, back to books and back to periodicals again. Whether all this reading has improved my general knowledge is dubious; acquaintances imagine I must be a whiz at Scrabble but I confess the words (or else the meanings) tend to go in one eye and out the other.

Variety is the spice of life - and in the magazines I read there is definitely that. Fortunately my regular newsagent knows what I'm up to when I buy Loaded alongside Mother and Baby, then Boxing News with the Jewish Chronicle and Needlecraft!

The actual reading can create various moods. Some promising sources turn out to be let-downs; conversely, even subjects which I personally dislike take on lives of their own once it is perceived that the writing has that certain style which will produce the goods for the OED.

Magazines can have many frustrating aspects: poor typography (is that a new word? No. It turns out to be a misspelling of a quite ordinary and familiar word, and confidence in the source is shaken); non-highlighter-friendly paper surfaces (the highlighter liquid shrivels before one's very eyes); and over-colourful page-layouts (dazzling enough to read, say, red on yellow but when one is using a pink highlighter pen too...).

I can find myself overwhelmed by the sheer volume of advertisements to be read in many sources, primly shocked by the language (reading for the OED has certainly extended my vocabulary in all respects!), amazed by the attitudes of 'yoof' culture, and seriously intrigued by subjects never before considered interesting. All these feelings can occur within a month's reading. It's lovely and, if I had my time again I would do it full-time, right from graduation day.

Vivienne Painting has been a reader on the OED since 1982.