does anyone ever read an encyclopedia or dictionary for fun?

I have been doing this since I was a kid, and sometimes I had a friend who also did this, and we would each grab a dictionary and randomly open pages and pull words from it to share, with each other or to see if the other had heard of it. The word I usually use to stump people is pygmy, a unit length of measure from the elbow to the finger, usually based on that of the king. [old way of measuring out for example cloth from centuries ago]

no. i have not tried reading dictionary and encyclopedia for fun. hehe i have never thought about it actually.

There is a sales lady she has made a point whenever she has any encyclopedia for sale she comes to our institute and sells it to all the scientists, other day we were discussing this that it is good to increase knowledge but very few of us have only read any, Sometimes I do pick up and learn some things and feel good when I do but that is a rare event.

Yes i do that sometime. sometimes I read dictionary when I feel so. Or may be when i want to read something and there is nothing else to read.I like to read dictionary. I love encyclopedia. But I do not have this.

No thanks. I think I'll pass. I haven't read the encyclopedia or dictionary for fun. But I have scanned the encyclopedia looking for interesting articles when I was bored. But usually I always have something to do, and books I haven't even read that I'm looking forward to reading.

English is NOT my first language. I read World Encyclopedia every day on my Computer. As a young student in Malta I was made to read six pages of the dictionary every night. I class myself now at age 77 as having a greater than average vocabulary.

Reading the dictionary is the best way for someone to learn another language. Last night my 14yo daughter was arguing with me about the word homonym and homophone. I had never heard of homophone but she was confusing the two words so I had her look them both up. After that she started reading words to me to see if I knew what they meant. I knew the first few but then she started picking words I'd never heard of. LOL! When I was growing up, whenever I asked my father what a word meant he always, always, without fail, told me to look it up in the dictionary. I don't know whether he was trying to teach me or whether he didn't know the answer himself. LOL! I think he was trying to teach me. He always kept a dictionary nearby to help him with crossword puzzles. I love dictionaries and the Thesaurus. They help me with my writing.

I won't call you a wierdo because it has been something I have done in the past. With 6 kiddos keeping me busy (not to mention Mylot - LOL), I haven't had time to do that in a long time, but it was fun to read for the sake of learning things I was interested in.

I know people who like to do this for fun. But I can't stand books with lots of small letters and no pictures lol. xD

Although she can't read yet, my 9 year old daughter loves to skim through pages of encyclopedia. When she finds an illustration that peaks her interest, she'll ask me to read a little about it. I love doing this with her. I love that she is so inquisitive. I have paged through both encyclopedias and dictionaries for the fun of it. It's interesting to learn new things all the time!

I do, and I like learning new things, especially vocabulary. When my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas I told him I wanted one of those huge dictionaries like they have at the library that needs its own podium. I got a big one- but not quite that big, we don't really have the room for that. Every once in a while my husband and I quiz each other from the dictionary- either on spelling or definitions. It's educational fun!! (I've been called a dork once or twice because of it.)

Its not wierd, ive also do it some times. Like one time i read on wikipedia about lightsabers for majbe a hour or two. If found so much interesting and nice information there, i often go there if i want to read about something.