Originally Posted By: themilum
Here's a book, jothan, that might make you acceptably erudite if you think that you should really bother...
Due Considerations: Essays and Criticism by John Updike
New York Times Book Review (in part)

Thanks for the suggestion; I'll look into that. I noticed John Updike wrote one of the articles displayed on The New York Review of Books website.

Originally Posted By: themilum
On second thought just reading the New York Times book reviews of this book should enable you to converse wildly and wrongly with the intellectual chic.

Well, the subject matter shouldn't matter too much; just as long as the vocabulary is handled effectively: I learn from their writing technique rather than their ideology.
The problem with studying mere lists or the dictionary is I'm not creative enough to think of appropriate contexts to use them. I'd like these words to be right at my fingertips so they can be effortlessly and spontaneously employed when auspicious occasions arise.

Last edited by jotham; 12/15/07 05:22 AM.