Try to load .lispwords from the current directory first.

README.adoc

@@ -167,16 +167,15 @@ have an LIN of 0.
 
 == Customization
 
-You can specify your own LINs for keywords via a customization
-file. The name of the file is the first available of the
-following:
+You can specify your own LINs for keywords via one customization
+files; `lispindent` will try and read these files, in this order:
 
-- the value of the environment variable `LISPWORDS`, if set
-- the file `.lispwords` in your home directory
+- the file `.lispwords` in the current directory
+- the value of the environment variable `LISPWORDS`, if set, or `.lispwords` in
+  your home directory
 
-If `LISPWORDS` isn't set and `~/.lispwords` doesn't exist, no
-customization is done. If `LISPWORDS` is set but the thus named
-file doesn't exist, no customization is done.
+If `lispindent` for whatever reason can't read any of these `.lispindent` files,
+then no customization is done.
 
 `~/.lispwords` can contain any number of
 2-element lists: The first element of each list is a Lisp symbol

lispindent.lisp

@@ -34,10 +34,8 @@
   #+mkcl (mkcl:getenv s)
   #+sbcl (sb-ext:posix-getenv s))
 
-(defun read-home-lispwords ()
-  (with-open-file (i (or (retrieve-env "LISPWORDS")
-                         (merge-pathnames ".lispwords" (user-homedir-pathname)))
-                     :if-does-not-exist nil)
+(defun read-lisp-words (path)
+  (with-open-file (i path :if-does-not-exist nil)
     (when i
       (loop
         (let ((w (or (read i nil) (return))))
@@ -176,7 +174,9 @@
               (incf i))
             (incr-finished-subforms)))))))
 
-(read-home-lispwords)
+(read-lisp-words (merge-pathnames ".lispwords"))
+(read-lisp-words (or (retrieve-env "LISPWORDS")
+                     (merge-pathnames ".lispwords" (user-homedir-pathname))))
 
 (indent-lines)