He misses not having enough books because he's an avid reader.
What does "miss" mean here?
What does "miss" mean here?
What does "miss" mean here?
To miss something in that context is to feel a sense of loss or longing for something that you don't have. "I miss my family at Christmas." "I miss having a dog."
No, it's not an odd sentence at all.
No, it's not an odd sentence at all.
Not odd, Uriel?
Not having enough = having few.
He misses having few books?
"I miss having a dog."
"I miss not having a dog." ???
He misses not having enough - what is NOT doing there?
Not having enough = having few.
He misses having few books?
"I miss having a dog."
"I miss not having a dog." ???
He misses not having enough - what is NOT doing there?
Yep, the "not" throws the whole thing off. My hunch is that the writer just made a mistake.
<<He misses not having enough books because he's an avid reader. >>
Option:
He hates not having enough books because he's an avid reader.
Option:
He hates not having enough books because he's an avid reader.
You're right -- I got the gist of the sentence right away, so I didn't even notice the strange placement of "not". There you go -- a native-speaker reading mistake!
Actually this sentence is from a Collins dictionary. I hate those compilers putting strange example sentences in a dictionary.
Hmm... I just thought of a way that it COULD make sense as-is, but it does make a very bad example sentence in a dictionary, because it's difficult to figure this sort of thing out with no context.
Perhaps what the sentence means is: He's an avid reader, and an avid reader can never have enough books (because there are always more books out there to read). But maybe something changed, and it feels like he DOES have enough books, and he misses the feeling of not having enough books. That still doesn't quite make sense to me, at least without surrounding context, but it might have been the writer's intention. Or, of course, it can indeed be a simple mistake.
- Kef
Perhaps what the sentence means is: He's an avid reader, and an avid reader can never have enough books (because there are always more books out there to read). But maybe something changed, and it feels like he DOES have enough books, and he misses the feeling of not having enough books. That still doesn't quite make sense to me, at least without surrounding context, but it might have been the writer's intention. Or, of course, it can indeed be a simple mistake.
- Kef