So I had a completely different post ready to go up today, but then I checked my mail. And after weeks of waiting (okay, really it was only 9 days, but still it felt like weeks), it finally arrived. And I am doing my happy dance.

I finally received my new Oxford English Dictionary, 3d edition!!! (Or OED for you dictionary aficionados.) (And you know what, I just used my new OED to make sure I spelled aficionado correctly.)

Right now, some of you are probably thinking, WTF?

It may seem a bit nuts to get this excited over a dictionary. I admit—I am a total booknerd. And total booknerds get it—dictionaries are the most awesomest of books. (I know some of you are nodding your heads in agreement right now.)

For those of you still not on board, think about this:

Every book that has been or will be printed can be found in the pages of a dictionary. 

I know, right?!

Plus my new OED has over 335,000 words, phrases, & meanings, as well as 11,000 encyclopedic entries.

And now I can finally finish the scholarly article I was writing because I can finally cite to an actual dictionary with page numbers (instead of citing to the online version).

So if you don’t have your own dictionary, I encourage you to think about adding one to your library, even one of the smaller paperback versions. You won’t be disappointed.

And now this booknerd is going to go learn some new words.