Applied Phonetics Book

One of my best friends gave me this book for my birthday (last year? Or the year before? Sometimes I think I'm a really bad friend) and I've been putting off reading it since I got it because I don't want to be disappointed - somehow I feel like I would be an even worse friend if I didn't like it.

Because I usually find this type of book disappointing. One is fatigued by the endless parade of words, words that will hardly ever be used by anyone, words that if they are ever used will be met with an impenetrable wall of incomprehension. I find that depressing. Also the wit stops being funny after a while.

My problem is that I have an urge to read every book from cover to cover. It's not that severe an urge, but impossible to restrain completely. Textbooks are the worst. It's hard to study effectively when you want to read every single word in the book, even the ones that don't relate to the course.

So for this book, a compromise: I will read it from cover to cover, but only a few words each night before I go to bed. I will not immerse myself in it fully, for that will destroy its charm. Last night I read the introduction and the first word. Things are promising so far: the dust cover is pristine and uncreased, pure and white and it smells new. I can't remember the last time I read a brand new hardcover book. The tactile pleasure of the experience is so far more than enough to sustain my interest.