What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I read this book this year. I've wrecked my brain looking at my reading list and trying to figure it out.

It was published in the past 10-20 years. Main character is a man. I'm about 80% certain this is a short story.

The character slowly loses more and more words until he has none left and he can't speak. He begins carrying notebooks where he writes the answers/comments to conversations. One per page. At the end of the day when he is out of pages, he uses the ones he's already written to talk to people.

There's a scene where the character is out of pages and he's flipping back and forth between slightly unrelated responses trying to talk to a woman.

The story talks about the notebooks piling up in his apartment.

Any ideas?

There is Ella Minnow Pea, where the letters of the alphabet gradually disappear, but it happens to everyone and it isn't entire words.

This sounds very interesting. I hope someone can solve it. Do you recall anything about how or why he loses his words? Did you read it in an anthology, and if so do you recall anything about the book as a whole (was it all by the same person, a themed anthology, hardcover or pb, cover, etc.)?

bumping - Courtney, this does sound interesting, and somewhat familiar, I think.