"Dictionary of Fine Distinctions" by Eli Burnstein

This is a fun and quick read, but unfortunately I found it patchy and unsatisfying.  Perhaps my expectations had been set too high by similarly styled books that offer a more rigorous treatment of their subject.  This is difficult to review, because I’m not sure that the book even knows what it is.  On the cover it is a dictionary, and inside it describes itself as a “synonymy” and an encyclopedia.  The words “dictionary” and “encyclopedia” imply a level of rigor, completeness and organisation that the book isn’t really pretending to have (and as far as my limited research goes, “synonymy” refers to the state of being synonymous, so can’t even be used to describe a book in that way).  If anything, I guess it’s a collection, a ragbag, a miscellany, an assortment… if only I had some kind of dictionary where I could distinguish between those words and choose the right one.

The book bounces between different levels of detail: straight out of the gate there is a very terse comparison of “emoji” vs. “emoticon” followed by a surprisingly complex discussion of the foam in various types of coffee.  For some of the brief explanations of words that I was already familiar with, I sometimes found myself thinking “I’m sure it’s more nuanced than that”, and then found that there were extra details in the endnotes that added more clarity - and it’s not clear why those weren’t integrated with the main text.  And there is a mixture of concepts (envy vs. jealousy, ethics vs. morality, shame vs. guilt) and things (leggings, tights, pantyhose and stockings) with no apparent ordering or organisation.

There are certainly plenty of “Aha!” moments, and it did have that quality of drawing me in by offering me “just one more…” before I put the book down.  And the illustrations are whimsical and nicely drawn.  This would be a great book to occupy yourself with while you’re on the toilet - but I feel that that’s not much of a recommendation for a book.

Thank you Edelweiss, Union Square & Co., and the author for the free review copy of Dictionary of Fine Distinctions in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

My rating: ★★★☆☆