new words – coruscant

This one made me think of crepuscular, but it is almost the reverse of that, closer to lucent. Coruscant - shining, brilliant Still in The Orchard Keeper, only a couple pages from the previous post. Here is the sentence: "Through the leaves of the hardwoods he could see the zinc-colored roof of the church faintly …

new words – brogan and moiling

Another two for the price of one sentence. It's worth mentioning that all these posts so far have come from within only thirty pages or so of the same book. Brogan - a coarse work shoe reaching to the ankle. Moiling - the first definition is requiring hard work, but McCarthy uses the second definition: …

new words – murrhine

Cormac McCarthy is one of many authors known to make up words, either by sticking two separate words together, or by using them in unusual ways. This is one example. Murrhine means of, relating to, or made of murra, which is a material thought to be of semiprecious stone or porcelain used to make costly …

lovely words

As one who has been reading constantly for most of my life, I don't often encounter new words anymore. Except, that is, when I read something by Cormac McCarthy. I decided I should start keeping track of my favorites when I, today, encountered two new beauties in the same sentence. Here they are: Coomb (also …

Didn’t read it: The Novelist: A Novel, by Jordan Castro, a noview

Imagine that you wake one morning and at the foot of your bed is a glowing blue portal cut from the air, a shimmering gateway to whoknowswhere, you step blearily and excitedly toward it, it could lead anywhere, anywhen, turn you into anyone, the vibrating, shimmering edges seem to pulse with possibility, this, finally, is …