I always dreamed of someday having a copy of the OED in my office.
I would imagine so, knowing your appreciation of Shakespeare :-)
For the full depth of word histories and a complete range of contextual usage examples there's really no substitute for the full 20-volume deadtree version. The CD of the 2nd Edition that I have is not only quite poor quality software, it doesn't have anything close to the full range of information included in the printed volumes. It's so nice to be able to have several volumes open at once or to be able to quickly flip between multiple bookmarks in a print volume while doing research....something that's really not the same while working with the expensive online OED subscription site. It will certainly be a loss when the 3rd edition is only available online.
"sigh"