Views Of Philology

My back aches when I sit too long at the computer.

After every hour or so I spend writing, I break to smoke a pipe and read for a bit in a different chair. Sometimes I just read murder mysteries, but to justify to my own mind that I’m really working, I often read books related to my profession as a writer.

Yes, reading enlightens the soul and refreshes the mind.

For instance, yesterday I finished copyright declarations for the 22 books I’m listing in the Google Books Partner Program, a tedious task. During my break I could have read a mystery, but virtuously I chose to read a book related to philology, the study of words.

Dr. Marina Orlova, arguably one of the world’s foremost philologists, holds two degrees related to linguistics and etymology. Her book, Hot For Words (N.Y. HarperCollins. ©2009. 183+ pages) examines word and phrase origins in the light of phonetics, phonology, syntax, and semantics.

Exciting reading.

After my break, I returned to formatting the 278 pages of the book I’m writing on finding and doing the will of God. My working title is If God Leads Me, Why Do I Run In Circles?

After a couple of hours, I took another break to read Dr. Orlova’s book. The subtitle of the book says it contains, “Answers to all your burning questions about words and their meanings”.

Words covered in the text include nicebecetur (a dainty, fashionable woman), mathmatics, and skinny-dipping.

As I prepared my own books for submission to the publisher, I had to reformat much of my text because over the years I’ve been working on this one, I used several different computer programs and needed to make them all conform to a consistent format.

Time for another break and back to my intense study of philology.

I learned that Dr. Orlova holds degrees in both Russian and English language instruction. Her website, is named the same as her book Hot For Words. Her site index lists words and phrases she covers in brief video presentations at http://www.hotforwords.com/words/ . The site draws over 170,000 subscribers.

I did not know that many people were interested in philology.

Dr. Orlova’s book is also lavishly illustrated.

Oh, did I mention that she teaches most of her lessons in philology while wearing bikini-like outfits?

But, of course, I only read her book for the articles.