How long does it take to read The Deeper Meaning of Liff?
A Dictionary of Things That There Aren't Any Words For Yet
The Deeper Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams, John Lloyd takes about 2 hours 52 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 2 hours 52 minutes
An evening's read
First published 1990. 156 pages, about 42,900 words.
6 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 4 hours 46 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 2 hours 52 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 1 hour 47 minutes |
The page count is the median across 10 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Does the sensation of Tingrith(1) make you yelp? Do you bend sympathetically when you see someone Ahenny(2)? Can you deal with a Naugatuck(3) without causing a Toronto(4)? Will you suffer from Kettering(5) this summer? Probably. You are almost certainly familiar with all these experiences but just didn't know that there are words for them. Well, in fact, there aren't--or rather there weren't, until Douglas Adams and John Lloyd decided to plug these egregious linguistic lacunae(6). They quickly realized that just as there are an awful lot of experiences that no one has a name for, so there are an awful lot of names for places you will never need to go to. What a waste. As responsible citizens of a small and crowded world, we must all learn the virtues of recycling(7) and put old, worn-out but still serviceable names to exciting, vibrant, new uses. This is the book that does that for you: The Deeper Meaning of Liff--a whole new solution to the problem of Great Wakering(8)1--The feeling of aluminum foil against your fillings.2--The way people stand when examining other people's bookshelves.3--A plastic packet containing shampoo, mustard, etc., which is impossible to open except by biting off the corners.4--Generic term for anything that comes out in a gush, despite all your efforts to let it out carefully, e.g., flour into a white sauce, ketchup onto fish, a dog into the yard, and another naughty meaning that we can't put on the cover.5--The marks left on your bottom and thighs after you've been sitting sunbathing in a wicker chair.6--God knows what this means7--For instance, some of this book was first published in Britain twenty-six years ago.8--Look it up yourself.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Subjects: Humor, Terms and phrases, English wit and humor, Geographical Names, American wit and humor, Humor, general
More by Douglas Adams
Works (Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy / Restaurant at the End of the Universe / Life, the Universe and Everything / So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish / Mostly Harmless / Young Zaphod Plays it Safe) 15.0 h
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency 5.1 h