W is for Wow! Words.

A to Z Challenge nearing the end. It's letter W, or Wow! Words.

Wow. An odd word. A palindrome. What's a palindrome? A word, phrase, or sentence that spells the same backwards and forwards, like tot, bob, peep, pop, damm'it I'm mad, etc. I know. Cool.

And fun.

Words are fun. My favorite games as a child were hangman and word jumbles. I still love jumbles. And hangman if I can find someone willing to play. Sure, I could play online--everyone plays online these days--but I prefer human interaction, the thrill of competing against another person, not a machine. I think that is one reason I prefer to read hard copy.

Computers are excellent for writing--truly; I would be buried under a tonne of paper wads by now if not for my computer--but when it comes to reading, I prefer the 3-D tangibility of printed paper, the solidity of a book; the three-inch heft of blood, sweat, and tears that is visual confirmation of an author's hard work. Swiping pages on a screen is not the same, anymore than driving a virtual race car in an arcade compares to sliding into the leather seat of a rumbling Camaro and gunning it around a paved oval. Touch, taste, smell...so important in fiction, and to me, so important in the fiction experience.

What about you? Are you a word wizard? Do you write, or play word games? And when you read books, do you prefer paper or e-book? Please share in the comments what wows! you about words.

Deborah

I knew I had no lyrical quality, a small vocabulary, a little gift of metaphor. The original and striking simile never occurred to me. Poetic flights...were beyond my powers. On the other hand, I had an acute power of observation, and it seemed to me that I could see a great many things that other people missed. I could put down in clear terms what I saw...I knew that I should never write as well as I could wish, but I thought, with pains, that I could arrive at writing as well as my natural defects allowed. ~W. Somerset Maugham