Now here’s a word you don’t run across very often: bedeguar.
I had to search many places to find out it means “a gall produced on rosebushes,” gall being a type of fungus. Looking at that definition, you might be surprised to find out the word was not used in a gardening article. No, in Saturday’s Globe and Mail newspaper, columnist Ian Brown said “he felt the bedeguar of bookstore despair.” A fungus of despair?
The full article (no longer available), called “The urge to purge,” begins:
Maybe you’re this kind of person: For three months, you tried to cull a handful of books from the shelves that line your house, and you failed. It’s not like it’s impossible. You haven’t even read half of them. You just can’t pull the trigger, you wuss…”
An interesting read about letting go of books, and an interesting use of a uncommon word!
Books can also have a boomerang effect. Because I review books, I get too many to keep and simply have to get rid of ones that don’t appeal. But here’s the thing: when I see those same books on the shelves of my favourite bookstore (The Bookshelf in Guelph), I find myself desperately wanting to buy them. They look so good, so interesting, maybe I didn’t give them a chance…I have to stop myself from buying the very books that I discarded after getting them for free. Books can definitely take over your house. I have a book by Ian Brown that’s definitely a keeper, only I’m not sure where I put it…
Gloria, I’ve seen your groaning bookshelves and no wonder you need to regularly purge!