Yes, is the Merriam-Webster Third International Dictionary as entertaining as the OED?
No.
ETA: judikium, that was my experience with competitive spellers at the lower levels, too. For the most part kids are there because they want to be, not because their parents are making them be.
I dunno about the Shorter OED, but I’ve been composing for nearly 40 years, and I’ve never heard of the alleged musical term “amarevole,” nor does it appear in my musical dictionaries, and certainly not in my Webster’s.
What struck me is that sometimes when a word was completely unfamiliar, the spellers flubbed it up in odd ways, that indicated they didn’t understand the patterns of the origin languages. For example, Menhir was misspelled Mynheer - that misspelling doesn’t follow the pattern of Welsh or French spelling, neither of those languages commonly have words with “ee” in them (unless of Dutch origin), and the “y” in Welsh is not pronounced the way we pronounce “e”. I had assumed the contestants were versed in lanuage theory, especially how European languages spelled their morphemes. The mispelling of palatschinken was another surprise. The contestant didn’t know how German words are spelled, because he spelled it the way an American with no exposure to German would spell it. (“Ch” instead of “tsch” and “u” instead of “a”). Perhaps these students really do use rote memorization, which would be very sad.
To me the spelling bee seems more of a linguistic exercise - the inclusion of the origins of words provide big clues. If you you’re good at picking up patterns and language spelling rules, you have a big advantage.
Maybe that’s why the winner won. The commentator commented (heh) several times that she really knew her roots. She’d ask about Greek this and Latin that, using words I’ve never heard. (Not that it’s hard to use words I’ve never heard.)
Amarevole is not in the unabridged OED either. I smell a lawsuit!
Is it in the dictionary used for the competition? Mirriam-Webster’s Third International?
I found “amarevole” in an online music dictionary:
I will check tonight and report back. 
In 5th grade, I won my school and beat everyone in 5th-8th grades in city to advance to state, where I finished around 6th. I don’t remember the word I went out on. After being eliminated, we were whisked to a back room where we had all the ice cream and cake we could eat.
In sixth grade I thought I was a spelling stud and assumed I would at least go to state; and I swaggered as if it were already true. So I get up with a few kids left, and the teacher says “mammary.”
Me: Memory?
Her: No, mammary.
Me: Memory?
Her: No…mammary…MAMmary!
At this point I’m just staring at her, so they have a quick whispered conference (she was probably heading me off before asking for a definition) and they substitute another word. I don’t remember what that word was, but I went down in flames and never entered a spelling bee again.
In elementary school in the early 90s, our spelling bees were only the fourth and fifth graders competing against each other.
There were qualifying rounds, where each specific class of students would compete against each other then, then the top few would go against all the other winners of the two grades.
When I was in fourth grade, I came in fourth.
Fifth grade on the other hand, I’m doing pretty well during a qualifying round and can’t wait to compete in the true spelling bee and improve on my fourth place finish.
Then the word “scheme” gets handed to me. I spell it with a K like a dope and am pissed at myself for the rest of day because I knew how to spell it correctly. I just had a brain cramp.
Grrr.
Mynheer is a separate word. I assume the girl heard “menhir,” thought she recognized it, and didn’t try to come up with a more logical spelling.
Just in case anyone feels the need to read this guy’s drivel, don’t. The book is pretty terrible and while entertaining for the first few pages, shoots its wad very early.
You have been warned.
Thanks for that! I was actually considering ordering it for $14 yesterday through Amazon, but fortunately, I got distracted and forgot.
If you want to read an enjoyable book about a man reading an entire reference work, you should read The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs, which is about the author’s attempt to read the entire Encyclopædia Britannica. A very entertaining and funny book.
Definitely agreed. It’s why I picked up Reading the OED in the first place, I was hoping for something similar to The Know-It-All, which I love.