On my desk I have:
[ul]
[li]Ohanian’s Physics[/li][li]Strunk and White[/li][li]LaTeX for Everyone (This is MUCH less kinky than it sounds, trust me.)[/li][li]The manual for the AASTeX document class.[/li][li]Chandrasekhar’s Radiative Transfer[/li][li]Carroll and Ostlie’s Modern Astrophysics[/li][li]IDL User’s Guide and IDL Reference Guide[/li][li]The manual for my far-too-complicated Casio calculator[/li][/ul]
What books to you keep within easy reach?
–Merriam Webster dictionary
–whatever texts I’m teaching at the moment
–whatever texts I need for the research I’m doing at the moment (too numerous to name)
–whatever I’m reading for pleasure (usually a mix of sci-fi, children’s lit., romance, & classics)
Ahhhhh! I need to just take up residence in a huge library somewhere!
Chuang’s Physics of Optoelectronic Devices
Running Linux
A half-dozen well-worn journal articles
[ul]
[li]All the Straight Dope books ;)[/li][li]Coxeter’s Introduction to Geometry[/li][li]A large number of texts on general and algebraic topology[/li][li]For fun, Nelson’s Proofs Without Words[/li][li]Lach’s The How’s and Why’s of French Cooking[/li][li]All of Douglas Adam’s books (the Hitchhiker series and the Dirk Gently ones):)[/li][/ul]
My mouse pad is a copy of “The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language” I can bearly spell.MTS
Books almost always on my desk:
The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
American Slang by Robert Chapman
The Bible (even though I’m an atheist)
my Straight Dope collection
a BASIC programming manual (it’s been there forever but I haven’t used it in about a year)
Other books that happen to be on my desk right now:
Collins Greek Dictionary
Nothing Risque, Nothing Gained by Richard Lederer
a Windows 98 manual
3 notebooks
[list]
[li]The Particle Physics Booklet[/li][li]Perl 5 Pocket Reference[/li][li]The vi Editor Pocket Reference[/li]Mathematical Tables from the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
Peterson’s Field Guide to Western Birds.
The Sibley Guide to Birds
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Keith
Working With Words: a handbook for media writers and editors by Brian S. Brooks
The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law
Columbia Missourian Handbook of Local Style
The Deluxe Transitive Vampire by Karen Gordon
My unabridged dictionary
Whichever textbooks my professors deem necessary for the semester
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 5th ed.
The Dreamweaver 3 Bible
The Book of Lists, vols. 1-3 and The Book of Lists, 90’s Edition by Wallace, et al
Always a Swedish-English and English-Swedish dictionary.
On my desk now, books gathered over the past week:
Only whatever I’m reading at the moment, which in this case happens to be “Reports from Holocaust” by Larry Kramer. Excellent read. Towards the end of the book, I always have another one ready to go.
I’m at work right now (so why aren’t I working?)
The books I need for my job:
The Modern RPG Language - Cozzi
RPG IV Jumpstart - Meyers
CL Programming for the IBM AS/400 - Veal
and just at the moment
Specifications for Filing Form 1098, 1099, 5498, and W-2G Magnetically or Electronically - IRS
Do I know how to have fun or what?
I’m also reading Making Good Progress - The Application Developement Process - Campbell and I have a number of books with titles like HTML 4 for the World Wide Web - Castro or * API Concepts for RPG Programmers* hanging around here just in case.
Is it any wonder I browse the SDMB to keep awake?
Merriam-Webster English dictionary
Le Robert French/English dictionary
La Petite Larousse French/French dictionary
The Little, Brown Handbook
PC Hardware in a Nutshell
Microsoft Windows NT Network Administration Training
Listed Stock Options
And I sometimes read these just for fun!
I always have the AAA Tour Guide handy, because I have a camper and am always either going on a road trip, on a road trip, or coming back from a road trip.