Dear Valentine Read me the Shallow Water Dictionary

Shallow Water Dictionary
by John R. Stilgoe

an essay on lost words and a world that went with them-- the world of the new england marsh. best 43-page book i ever read.

Once adrift on the tide, a sea mark is FLOTSAM, and once stranded by the ebb, it is JETSAM, left on the WRACK LINE. Dictionaries other than this define flotsam as pieces of a wrecked ship or its cargo floating on the sea-- not just anything floating around, say trees washed south from Nova Scotia-- and jetsam as stuff deliberately thrown from a ship in danger of foundering-- jettisoned-- and, Worcester is specific about this, floating under the surface of the water. Jetsam attached to a floating buoy for eventual recovery is ligan, but about that nothing is known along the marshes, so flotsam and jetsam receive attention here, along with wrack. The 1934 Webster is clear that wrack designates any wreckage and all cast-up seaweed, the last usually remaining in a black line along a beach. In the marshes no one uses flotsam and jetsam anywhere near accurately, and wrack designates chiefly stranded seaweed, although the word more frequently identifies a wretchedly maintained boat "going to wrack and ruin." Does a correct term exist for debris, floating or stranded? Is the telephone pole long ago flung across the marsh and into a creek jetsam or wrack or what-- aside from an impediment to navigation?

it sounds like it might drive you crazy, but instead it's a peaceful, meditative read, that opens up an unknown world and makes you sad for an age that lost it.
it was amazing

one of those books that felt like an impulse buy. obviously the marketing dept did a good job making it eye-catching. turns out a year+ later it was required reading for a class. enjoyable stepping into the past. it is hard to tell if it is a story or true (the name aids in it being illusive) but i think this is what Stilgoe intends. encouraging people to look at things differently or to recognize that there are things that are no more.

-Goodreads reviews