Reading the dictionary- for the love of words.

This following is a response I sent to a native Spanish speaker who wanted to know what I meant by my post on the facebook dictionary.com saying that I would read the dictionary (did this from a quite young age):

"I would open the dictionary and read different pages and find words that I didn't know and try and use them. This would be in a piece of writing. Sometimes I would just look at them (words) and enjoy the learning. I would get excited about words new to me, and their meanings, and I still do. My parents had a fabulous dictionary- almost like and encyclopaedia at the same time.

I would also record words I didn't know as I was reading novels/fiction/anything written really. Also when I would hear words. Then I would sit down later with my note book of words, look them up and write the meaning in. Eventually I didn't seem to need to do this as once I had looked it up I seemed to recall the meaning later anyway.

I think it also accounts for why I am a good speller. Early on I probably memorised words but eventually, for some reason, I only really needed on look at a word to remember it's spelling. Crosswords are something good for people who can spell and have good knowledge of meanings - so naturally I enjoy them too.

So that's what I mean by reading the dictionary. I enjoyed it but I know it's not other people's idea of fun!"