chrestomathy · /kreh-STAHM-ə-thee/ · /krɛsˈtɒməθɪ/. noun. A collection of choice literary passages, most often by a single author, and moste often to assist in learning a foreign language. From Greek khrēstos (useful) + mathein (to learn); from PIE root mendh- (to learn). See also: chrestomathic.
“…although the Diary of a Romantic Artist contains some of what we might expect, it also served as many other things: work journal, travel notebook, jotter for a proposed Dictionnaire des Beaux-Arts, aide-memoire, file of sent letters, chrestomathy, address book, and so on…” (Julian Barnes)
“This is also the topic of ‘Shadow and Ash’—an intellectual chrestomathy whose fragmentary method is finally its content.” (Samuel R. Delany)
“Ultimately, a printed digest or chrestomathy will be needed of these eight volumes, with their nearly 7,000 pages.” (Garrick Davis)
“The introduction to this chrestomathy, the troubled prolegomena you have just read, is all the explanation I can give at this time, of who I am and what all this means.” (Harlan Ellison)
“Daniel glances at Barnes, who is going through a chrestomathy of head-shaking, throat-slitting, eye-bulging, and hand-waving.” (Neal Stephenson)
“Well, there’s the Garden of Seasons. And the Gibson Chrestomathy and the Lovecraft Corpus.” (Polly Shulman)
:And so we leave the reader to his pleasant journey to the lands of Djinns and Mantris and spells and mystic talismans. He will be entertained by the chrestomathy of Bokhari; he will be entranced by the story of the winsome and dainty Bidasari.” (Chauncey C. Starkweather)