Kath’s Blog

For Reading Addicts has more to offer than just your run of the mill book reviews, I love to give our readers a bit more to get their proverbial teeth into! While I used to run FRA alone, we now have lots of enthusiastic literature lovers to help. As well as in the blog and pages sections, you’ll find us around our social media pages too so please try and remember we are people too, not just words on a screen.

It is on this page that you will find a whole plethora of interesting articles from the polls that require your input to a Word of the Day. In amongst the pages here you will find ‘me’ and hopefully, with your continued support – ‘you’ too.

My only sadness about the pages of Kath’s blog is that each new post does not have the same unmistakeable aroma of a new book, that you cannot feel the pages but rest assured, as much heart and soul has gone into these pages as a newly published novel.

Meet the Team



Word of the Day – Culchie

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Culchie (noun) kul-chee (Irish) (informal) a rough or unsophisticated country-dweller from outside Dublin. From a local pronunciation of the Mayo town of Kiltimagh (more…)

Word of the Day – Brochette

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Brochette (noun) brosh-et a skewer for use in cooking. First recorded in 1705–10; from French; Old French brochete (a spit for roasting meat) (more…)

Word of the Day – Sumptuous

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Sumptuous (adj) sump-chu-us luxuriously large; lavish; splendid. Entered English around 1475–85 and comes from the Latin word sūmptuōsus, meaning “expense.” (more…)

Word of the Day – Octothorpe

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Octothorpe (noun) okt-oh-thawp The symbol we now call a hashtag. First recorded in 1970–75.From octo-, after the eight endpoints on the perimeter of the symbol, plus a second element of…

Word of the Day – Propinquity

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Propinquity (noun) prop-in-kwit-ee nearness of relation; kinship. First recorded in 1400–1450. Comes via Old French propinquite, from the Latin word propinquitās, meaning “nearness.” (more…)

Word of the Day – Tricksy

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Tricksy (adj) trik-see Given to tricks; mischievous; playful; prankish. First recorded in 1545–55. Derives from the noun trick, which came from the Old North French word trique, “deceit.” (more…)

Word of the Day – Kvell

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Kvell (verb) kvel to be extraordinarily pleased; especially, to be bursting with pride, as over one's family. An Americanism first recorded in 1965–70 from Yiddish kveln, meaning “to be delighted.”…

Word of the Day – Pilcrow

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Pilcrow (noun) pil-kroh a paragraph mark. First recorded around 1400–50. An apparent alteration of the late Middle English word pylcraft(e), perhaps from Old French paragrafe, pelagraphe. (more…)

Word of the Day – Denouement

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Denouement (noun) dey-noo-mahn The final resolution of the intricacies of a plot, as of a drama or novel. First recorded in 1745–55. From French, literally means, “an untying.” (more…)

Word of the Day – Bellwether

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Bellwether (noun) bel-weth-er A person or thing that shows the existence or direction of a trend; index. First recorded around 1400–50. A bellwether originally meant “a male sheep that leads…

Word of the Day – Cachet

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Cachet (noun) ka-chey a distinguishing mark or feature; stamp. First recorded in 1630–40 and can also mean “superior status; prestige.” From French cachet, derived from the verb cacher, “to hide"…

Word of the Day – Gibberish

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Gibberish (noun) jib-uh-rish meaningless or unintelligible talk or writing. 1545–55; apparently gibber + -ish, on the model of language names so formed (more…)

Word of the Day – Grok

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Grok (verb) grok to understand thoroughly and intuitively. Coined by Robert A. Heinlein in the science-fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land, published in 1961. (more…)

Word of the Day – Bissextile

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Bissextile (noun) bi-secs-tile The leap year. First recorded in 1585–95 and from the word bissextus, which refers to February 29th. Bissextus means literally “the second sixth,” so called because the…

Word of the Day – Peculate

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Peculate (verb) pek-yu-layt to steal or take dishonestly (money, especially public funds, or property entrusted to one's care); embezzle. First recorded in 1740–50; verb use of peculate “embezzlement” (now obsolete),…

Quiz – The Characters of Dr Seuss

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To honour the great Dr Seuss’ birthday on March 2nd a quick quiz using some of his famous – and not so famous characters, but all of them wonderfully named.…

Word of the Day – Adumbrate

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Adumbrate (verb) ad-um-brayt To foreshadow; prefigure. First recorded in 1575–85 and comes from the past participle of the Latin verb adumbrāre, “to shade.” (more…)

Word of the Day – Kismet

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Kismet (noun) kiz-met fate; destiny. First recorded in 1840–50 and comes from Turkish ultimately from Arabic qisma, qismat-, meaning “division, portion, lot, fate.” Although a term from Islam, kismet is…

Word of the Day – Esculent

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Esculent (adj) es-kyu-lent suitable for use as food; edible. First recorded in 1615–25 and comes from Latin ēsculentus, “edible, full of food.” Esculentus shares a root with escarole, “a broad…

Word of the Day – Galligaskins

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Galligaskins (adj) gal-ig-ask-inz A type of loose knee-length pants. First recorded in 1570–80. Earlier forms include gallogascaine(s) and galigascon(s). Perhaps an alteration of obsolete French garguesque that was influenced by…