Coming up with just the right word can be a challenge. But then when you add into the mix some interesting words from around the world with beautiful illustrations, you get a satisfying book that’s a quick read.

“Other Wordly” by Yee-Lum Mak will take you all of about 15 minutes, if that, to read. But you will discover some interesting words that can be fun to figure out how you can incorporate into your life…writing and inserting into conversation.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Kummerspeck (noun, m, German): excessive weight gained through eating as a means of relieving stress or strong emotion.

Nefelibata ( noun, m + f, Spanish and Portuguese): lit. “cloud walker;” one who lives in the clouds of their own imagination or dreams, or one who doesn’t obey the conventions of society, literature or art.

Tsundoku (noun, Japanese): buying books and not reading them; letting books pile up unread on shelves or floors or nightstands.

Phosphenes (noun, English): the strange moving colors or “stars” you see after you rub your eyes.