One of my favorite things about one of my favorite authors, Poe, is his word choice. He uses elegant words for which most people would use the obvious plainer alternative. For example, in one of his detective stories a letter is purloined. Most authors would probably just use the word 'stolen,' but 'purloined' adds something more. While stolen is quite simple, purloined adds a touch of sneakiness to the connotation. And in his little-known, yet still gripping, novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, the character for whom it is named is so cold as to have lost all feeling. He is described as benumbed. A truly superior adjective to numb.
One of my least favorite things about one of my least favorite authors who shall not be named is his word choice. He either uses bland, overused words like good or polysyllabic sesquipedalian monstrosities of which few people know the meaning. He also repeats words often. Seriously. Get a thesaurus.
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