The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

What a lovely book of words, philosophy, and meaning. Every page considers at least one emotion I've experienced but might not have given expression to. And the moods that have been difficult to process in the past are softened to the point of easy digestion.This book is beautiful, heart-wrenching, real. Readers are encouraged to make up their own words and to give new meaning to those that are familiar. Even the Acknowledgements, which are so often only meaningful to the author, are filled with deep experiences that deserve illumination and exploration. This book is an inspiration. I will be using much of it to spark future stories as I read it again and again. And I will recommend it to everyone I know. [Also, buy the hardback version. These words should be held in your hands.]

This book hit me harder than I expected. I did not sit down and read it cover to cover. I would pick it up, flip to a random page, and every time it felt like it spoke directly to whatever I was feeling in that moment. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is not the kind of book you “finish.” It is something you keep around. Something you revisit when you cannot explain what is going on inside you, and the book somehow finds the words first. What John Koenig did here feels rare. He gives names to emotions that usually stay unspoken. Feelings that exist in that strange in-between place. The space between longing and acceptance. Between nostalgia and loss. Between knowing you have changed and not knowing who you are becoming. Seeing a word for those feelings - sonder, onism, zenosyne - feels like finally being understood in a language you did not know existed. The writing is gentle and honest. There is no trying to impress the reader. No over explaining. It feels like he sat with these emotions long enough to understand them, and then offered them to you without judgment. Even the design of the book feels intentional. There is space to breathe. The layout slows you down. The illustrations do not try to steal attention. Everything in it respects your inner world. The reason this became a five star read for me is because it feels personal. It does not just describe emotions. It gives you the feeling of being seen. It holds up a mirror and says, this is real, you are not imagining this. It is a reminder that being human is strange and painful and beautiful and confusing, and that you are not the only one who feels all of those things at once. If you are someone who feels deeply, who questions everything at night, or who struggles to put your emotions into words, this book is worth having in your life. Do not read it all at once. Read it when you need it.

Got this for Christmas, although for some reason, it was delayed. No matter, it was well worth the wait. I confess I haven't "finished it" because it is a dictionary of sorts, and I keep in the bathroom to read a bit at a time. Who cares. Move on. Physically, the book is beautiful, feels good in the hand, and is visually appealing, in a sort of well, in an alternate universe, this book could have magic and power. It should hum or have fairy sparks coming from it. It does have power, truly. This is a dictionary of words that don't exist but should, to describe the feeling of certain moments like looking wistfully out a windowpane that is dripping with rain. The words are carefully constructed, often with Latin roots, such that they SHOULD exist, and well, now they do. I think the title may be a bit misleading. This is not a volume designed to make one despair, to get the hankies out and boo-hoo along with the saddest songs one can think of. Rather, it is a poetic journey through fleeting moments and recognitions. For example: Echthesia: noun A state of confusion when your own internal sense of time doesn't seem to match the calendar--knowing that something just happened though it apparently took place seven years ago; or that you somehow built up decades of memories in the span of a year and a half. I sure have this and am delighted to have it put to words. I assumed my woogie sense of time was either early onset Alzheimer's or a byproduct of being the child of alcoholics. There's hope, then. Wildly creative and wise, these new words rearrange my brain a bit and make me yearn to write poetry. Unfortunately, to date, I don't seem to demonstrate an ability for same, but this would surely help. Poets? Writers? Dreamers? Bibliophiles? You need this dictionary. Ha-ha, pun intended, take not mine, but Mr. Koening's word for it!

The five stars are for the delivery speed and price when I bought it compared to what stores were selling it at. Knowing what I know now, I would have bought some other book lol. The book arrived early since I bought other books and packaged them together. I’d waited to get my hands on this one for a while now. The look in person is not as attractive as the photos make it out to be. It’s actually dull in comparison in hand. Certain angles it really shines. A center piece item it is not. Center for conversation it could be for you I guess or it would be for me had I not watched a whole Ted talk with the author explaining word for word that he literally just made up words. Words are really important for me. It’s how everything was created. So I take that seriously. I was under the impression that he found words that had already existed and placed them in a book to make it more available for others to explore. Anyone can make up words like snoop dog now has a dictionary for unimportant words like fashizzle. This book lost value in my mind after finding this out. But that’s me because I take solace in the fact that words are generally agreed upon by a collective of minds who’ve studied where words come from but then that’s not true in every word case I’m aware. Perhaps my expectations were just set wrong? Perhaps the book advertisement was misleading in saying what the book actually is about. Either way the thrill is gone and the book feels cheap out the box anyway in my opinion. It’s a hard backing which I prefer over paper but not whatever company made this hard backing. He spent 7 years composing this thing and settled for cheap material wrapping to cover the book in? I don't know. Rubs me the wrong way. If your amongst others who enjoy wheel spinning conversations to stimulate different perspectives about this subject then this could be a great read for that or for just making conversation with someone and never having read it all. As far as reading it for me, I haven’t really picked up the book since I found out on YouTube that he made it all up. I had just opened the book and started to explore it a couple of days before finding out. I enjoyed the new words and wanted to know more about the author and his experiences and came to find out he just made it all up. I’m glad he admitted this fact but also just kinda bummed out by it. Idk just kind of a buzz killer for me. Social media, tv, children, liars, everyday people just kinda make things up all day long everyday. Had I known I wouldn’t have bought it at all I think. It’s kinda dictionary like but not a dictionary exactly. It’s a compendium: a collection of words from a dictionary that has been summarized, shortened. And it includes other things at what seems to be complete random? Idk. Like little saying hear and there and some imagery that I’m not sure what the point is for. I don’t like sending things back and since it’s here already, I’ll use it to start conversations perhaps but for sure it’ll be a reminder to check out books more thoroughly before buying. I waited some time for this one to get on hand and it just wasn’t what I understood it to be and the material it’s made of clearly could have been made of better stuff. Let’s just say if it went missing under my couch I wouldn’t bother wondering if I’ll ever see it again. lol

The words we use are “made up” in that each has an etymology, a starting point from which it came for the purpose of expressing an idea, a feeling, a sense. Reading Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is my first experience in witnessing a word’s birth. I found the birth-witnessing experience to be such an incantatory moment that I want to live it over and over. And fortunately, Koenig’s book demands that the reader move through at a slow, savoring pace, making time for underlining and memorizing. And for awe. My favorite entry is the adjective “Looseleft”, which Koenig defines as “Feeling a sense of loss upon finishing a good book, sensing the weight of the book cover locking away the lives of characters you've gotten to know so well.” Its etymology in Koenig’s mind is “from looseleaf, a removable sheet of paper + left, departed.” It’s that very “looseleft” sense of loss that drives me to re-read books that restore the reality of Sophie Wilder, Athansor the White Horse, Aslan, Door, No-Name the Harpy, and other fictional characters I hope are really alive somewhere.

This book is a great idea and it's an interesting read but I was disappointed in the fact that it's all made up words. I was really hoping it included actual words from different languages that we don't have a descriptive word for in English.

This book is everything I hoped it would be. The words and definitions are thoughtful, well written, and ring all sorts of bells. If you don’t already know, the premise is that there are things we all experience or feel that we don’t exactly have words for, and this book sets out to provide them- which it does quite well. But beyond the word itself, it also explains and guides through some of the more elusive emotions that we live through, and does so with kindness, love and compassion. The book is divided into 6 chapters: 1. Between living and dreaming (seeing the world as it is) 2. The interior wilderness (defining who you are from the inside out) 3. Montage of attractions (finding shelter in the presence of others) 4. Faces in a crowd (catching glimpses of humanity from a distance) 5. Boats against the current (holding on in the rush of the moment) 6. Roll the bones (connecting the dots of a wide-open universe) Within each section the words are not listed alphabetically, but rather, thematically. As with any dictionary, I don’t think it’s meant to be read in order- you can if you want but I’ve been leafing through and skipping around. There is an index at the end which is alphabetical, in case you are looking for a particular word. The only thing I wish was different is that the pronunciations of each word are done with the emphasized syllable italicized instead of uppercase, which I don’t like but is a very tiny annoyance. Overall I would say this book is absolutely worth having, and reading!

I originally borrowed this book from the library, read the first few pages, and ordered a copy for myself. It's filled with words that give expression to the human condition in poetic and creative ways. Love it so much.

Libro unico e sorprendente, promuove l'empatia riconoscendo sentimenti condivisi della condizione umana per cui nessun linguaggio ha parole, fino ad ora. acquistato a malincuore da Amazon , per un amico a Perugia. Anche se, preferirei non arricchire ulteriormente il multimiliardario e abusatore dei diritti dei lavoratori, dopo la brexit, non c'era altra opzione per regalare questo libro che cambia la vita dal Regno Unito. Sostieni invece la tua libreria locale X Unique and stunning book , promotes empathy by recognising shared feelings of the human condition that no language has words for , until now. Bought from Amazon Italy for a friend in Perugia. Even though, I would prefer not to enrich further the multi-billionaire , and abuser of workers rights, since brexit , there was no other option to gift this life changing book from the uk

Allereerst: het is een prachtig uitgevoerd boekje. Mooie hardcover, goed papier and prachtige lay-out. Gene boek om van kaft tot kaft in één keer door te lezen. Maar wel een boek om zeer regelmatig op te pakken en een paar bladzijden te lezen. Perfect cadeau ook voor mensen die 'talig' zijn.

This book contains most of the untitled emotions you had, must read

El texto es muy interesante y visualmente es hermoso

Have you ever come across a situation that just didn’t have an exact word that defined it? Try this book. Strongly recommended. We all live fairly complicated lives and sometimes we need help to decode it. To put our feelings into words so that those words, now powerful enough to survive like a well-fed Voldemort, can challenge the world order. Or the exact opposite. We need our manifestations to have a size and shape and form like that of words and this is where this book will come handy. Every page is a revelation, throwing another win at the reader, in terms of conveying the precise feeling. And that makes it my most highlighted book of the year with almost every second paragraph underlined for posterity. May have to read again or many times over. Putting few samples below. — Star-stuck adj. :: exhausted by endless reviews and secondhand impressions; itching to stumble blindly into the world and make some mistakes, to wander around opening doors to restaurants and performances and movies you’ve never heard of, without the slightest idea of what to expect. Ludiosis n. the sense that you’re just making it up as you go along—knowing that if someone asked why you do most things, you couldn’t really come up with a convincing explanation. —