We all know them... The things in life that we all experience, but which don't necessarily have a name.This is a dictionary of those things.Ely: The feeling that something, somewhere has just gone horribly wrong.As an added twist, each of the words defined in the meaning of Liff is actually a placename somewhere in the world. Many of them are actually various odd village names from the UK (there are plenty, I live about five miles from 'Six Mile Bottom'!), but there are plenty from further afield too.One of the great things about this book however, is that its one of those that you can dip into for just a couple of minutes. A quick read before turning out the light at night, and you don't have to remember a narrative (useful for the very tired!)I do think that there should be a concerted campaign to make some of the more useful entries into words in common usage. ( )

This book has proved enormously useful in convincing people that I am stark raving nutter. When I use words such as "grimbister", "skagway" or "Mavis Enderby", people know I am a person to be reckoned with.
I've read this book cover to cover numerous times, it is a wonderful "bathroom reader", always finding new words for things I already knew but didn't know there was a word for.
I wish DNA were about today to provide sequels to this wonderful bit of silliness. ( )

I can read this book with a straight face. But not for long. Sooner or later one of the definitions will make me laugh. This one seems apposite:

"Ripon (vb.) (Of literary critics) To include all the best jokes from the book in the review to make it look as though the critic thought of them."

And everyone should instantly start using this one, at least as a tribute to the author:

"Scethrog (n.) One of those peculiar beards-without-moustaches worn by religious Belgians and American scientists which help them look like trolls."
MB 1-x-2007 ( )

This book takes a whole load of place names that are just sitting about not being used and gives them meanings for things that haven't really been given a proper word of their own. For example, Great Wakering is the feeling you have when you need to use the WC urgently but can't because you can't make up your mind what book to take in there with you. Something I'm sure all Library Thingers go through occasionally. ( )

Really funny! Obviously this book is not one to just sit down and read like a novel, but it is really entertaining in small doses.

Authors Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker fame and John Lloyd (co-producer for the aforementioned series' radio and TV spin-offs) have developed a "dictionary" containing meanings which they believe there should be a word for, but current lexicon has left dry. Most of these definitions are named for small towns around the world's countryside. For example:
Shoeburyness (abs.n.)
The vague uncomfortable feeling you get when sitting on a seat which is still warm from somebody else's bottom.
Nybster (n.)
Sort of person who takes the lift (elevator) to travel one floor.

Overall this is quite a hilarious compendium. Once in a while, it feels like it's getting tedious, but it turns out this just means you have been reading too long. Take a break and read a real book, when you come back to it later, it will be amusing all over again! ( )