Rating: 
Summary: The Professor and the Madman
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I liked the way it was constructed, to show the different paths of the characters' lives. I thought it was interesting to read about the diagnosing of schizophrenia "back in the day." Most of all, it made me wish I had a decent dictionary.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting, but boring
Review: Professor and the Madman caught my eye because of it's catchy title and interesting subject matter. However, when I finished reading it I was quite dissapointed. It read much like the history books that I was forced to read during high school, and I feel that the story should've been told in a historial fiction sense rather than a boring, dry history book sense. The information was there, just not presented in an enjoyable way. All in all, I'm glad that I now know what it takes compile a dictionary and that our english dictionary was mostly written by an insane criminal, but I don't feel enlightened after reading this. It was a chore just to finish it.
Rating:
Summary: The Professor and the Madman
Review: This book relly deserves two stars. It was very ordinary. The sudject itself wasn't very interesting. This was not a real page turner, and I found myself never minding putting it down. Although it was well written, I kept wanting more. When I was done I did not feel "disappointed", but had I had the choice, I wouldn't have read it.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful.
Review: Who would imagine the story of the Oxford English Dictionary being such an accessable and entertaining read? In fact Simon Winchester manages to find mystery and intrigue, murder and sex, humour and sadness and brings it together in one thrilling book. This is a book for everyone, regardless of your interest in words, history or true crime. Not suprisingly it is being made into a movie.
Rating:
Summary: Proof that madness has nothing to do with intelligence
Review: Dr. William C. Minor was an American, a doctor during the Civil War. He was delusional after the war and, on a trip to England, during one of his paranoid fits, he murdered an innocent man. When apprehended, it was obvious that Dr. Minor was insane and so confined to the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.During Dr. Minor's lifetime, he contributed more than 10,000 well-researched entries to the OED. Madness obviously had nothing to do with his intelligence. The book is about the relationship between Professor Murray, who was in charge of the OED and Dr. Minor, but it is also about a love of language and the mamouth task of producing the OED. The Professor and the Madman is well written and is a beautiful story, extremely detailed in its research. The author has poured though thousands of files from the various hospitals where Dr. Minor was confined, court documents, Civil War records and genealogical records of both of these men's families. What has emerged is a brilliant book, that brings to the reader a fascinating part of history. Who would have ever thought that the creation of a dictionary would be so interesting? I loved this book. Loved the way the author weaves the tale and gave historical details to support his conclusions. The author is British and his use of words and point of view really get into the mindset of the men who created the dictionary and the Victorian setting in which they lived. This book is a treat. Don't miss it. As a postscript, I must say that I just heard that a new edition of the OED has just become available online.
Rating: 
Summary: A Exciting As A Book About A Dictionary Can Get
Review: An interesting, tightly written tale that seems to have distilled the most interesting elements of the OED's saga. The Professor... reads like an adventure book, while in fact the subject matter is pretty much about word-trawling. The book's frothy style and lighthearted tone probably belie the amount of research that apparently went into this work, but make it much more palatable to the reader. This dictionary business is heavy stuff, with men dedicating their entire existences to poring over infinitesimal nuances of language, and it could potentially have made for quite a dry read. I enjoy Winchester's style very much, and found the book educational and interesting without being too weighty.
Rating:
Summary: Truly Unique
Review: The story of the creation of the mammoth Oxford English Dictionary (the linguist jargon is OED). Our star players is Dr. W. C. Minor and Professor James Murray. One on board making working the rest of his life on the OED, while the other in a psychiatric hospital from the Civil War writing obsessively about the etymologyies of some 10,000 words. The most words given by any one single person. While the book lagged in some areas, overall this book was highly unique and totally interesting. Aside from the story of how Minor and Murray became good friends through correspondences and meetings at the hospital, one aspect of the book that I enjoyed the most was that it gave me a great sense of appreciation for what goes into the workings of a dictionary - in particular the OED. The book also gives emphasis on certain words which allows the reader to understand much better the language that s/he uses and to give much more appreciation into what one says. Profound in some ways, this book is most highly reccomended.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting Book
Review: Simon winchester has taken one of the most important events in english literature and turned it into a great book. I really don't believe that many people would think that the making of the OED would be a fascinating subject. However, Winchester manages to combine it with a wonderful mystery story. It proves to be exciting, and very educational at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: Proof Positive That Any Topic Can Be Made Fascinating
Review: This story was intriguing, and proves that any topic can be made interesting, even one about the effort to compile a dictionary. Hidden under the main story though was an interesting sub-story. The effort to put together the Oxford English Dictionary was perhaps history's first "open source" movement for intellectual capital, and a precedent to what transpired in the 1990's with the development of the Linux operating system.
Rating:
Summary: A very engaging true story
Review: It's unbelivable that behind the gorgeous tome OED there is an engaging story. This book depicts how a life-imprisonment paranoia contribute numerous definitions to the best dictionary, OED. The story and writing style is quite attractive. My only complaint is that it should contain more examples selected from actual OED illustrating our protagonist's work as well as only descriptions and explanations about the process.
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