Dear Idaho Librarian:

             As a librarian, I wish to register a strong complaint about the ambiguity of a word that resonates in the very heart of my profession: the word “read”.  Surely the English-speaking world has borne long enough the irritating fact that you can’t tell by looking at this word whether it’s in the present or the past tense (and, in these degenerate times, it could even be a noun).  My outrage knows no bounds, and I am moved to the following poetic utterance:

            I feed my dog, and know that he’s been fed,
            I lead him on a walk; so he’s been led;
            If he escapes and flees, then he has fled.
            But if I read my book each night in bed,
            I find, come morning, that it’s not been red!

 (I realize that “red” is ambiguous, too, but that could easily be fixed by, for example, using two “d”s to spell the verb. Now don’t think that I’m asking for the whole language to be re-spelled, like G. B. Shaw wanted; just fix this one word and I’ll be happy.)

 I really think that whoever is in charge of the language ought to see to this.

 Sincerely yours,