OED, a monster 1910-era dictionary (forget which one), Partridge, Onions, Fowler (1st and 2nd), several dictionaries of quotations (Penguin, Oxford, Bartlett’s), Gray’s Anatomy, several thesauri[?], dictionaries of about 15 languages, grammars of about 75, Dictionary of Newfoundland English, Dictionary of Canadianisms, Larousse, a big Petit Robert, 35 or 40 atlases from different periods and on different themes, Elements of Style, Mencken and his supplement, 1949 Encyclopedia of Canada plus the Newfoundland supplement, numerous almanacs, mostly 1996 vintage, several mid-century desk encyclopedias, Black’s and about five other law dictionaries, and I’m not even sitting in my reference room to read off the shelves.
I basically only keep a couple of references by my desk all of the time; a dictionary which I use to check my spelling and an almanac which I use to get precise figures as needed. For the rest, I either search out information online or consult the King General Library for more specific reference works.
Black’s Law Dictionary!
And my Blue Book for citations.
But those might be a bit specialized.
I also keep my Spanish/English dictionary handy, though I seldom have use for it anymore.
–Amy
No, I don’t think so, The title is “A Manual of Recipes and Formulas.” Published in the early part of this century, although the first and last few pages were lost, along with the cover, in laboratory mishaps, during my father’s career as a Chemistry teacher. It has formulas for “disappearing cream” as well as burn remedies I know to be harmful by today’s standards. Seven or eight recipes for herbal tonics for pain, and half a dozen formulations for gun powder, depending on the proposed use. (I think transmission of the contents via the Internet would violate some current laws, in fact.) I must admit I keep it mostly for sentimental reasons, although I do occasionally look up something like “nerve tonic” just out of interest.
The book shows a high state of disregard for such things as toxicity of metals, exposure to the byproducts of reactions, and even suggests breathing in some fairly toxic substances in order to use them as vehicles to get other things into the blood stream. The author assumes that Laudanum and Gum Arabic are likely to be in ready supply at the local general store, along with silver nitrate, and several different types of acid.
<p align=“center”>Tris</p>
The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Roget’s Thesaurus, Capricorn Rhyming Dictionary, Harrap’s Spanish-English English-Spanish, Robert-Collins English-French French-English, Comprehensive English-Esperanto Dictionary, National Geographic World Atlas,… my ideal bookcase, among other things.
If you really want to learn about reference books, go to your local public library and ask the librarian to look at the “Sheehy”. It’s the reference book about reference books.
The librarian should be impressed with your knowledge of insider lingo.
Or he or she just may stare back at you with a puzzled look.
CRC Press makes one heck of a lot of handbooks. I’ve got the Chemistry and Physics one and the Standard Math Tables one, both early 80s editions. I’ve also got a ninth or tenth edition Merck Index, and an old Lange’s Handbook of Chemistry.
Most of the other books here in my office are either highly specialized (the CHARMm 22 Dictionary, for example) or not really reference books although I sometimes use them as such (The Feynmann Lectures on Physics or Lehninger’s Biochemistry).
I have a part-time job as trivia quiz master at an English pub here in Barcelona. Yeah, I’m an American, but I got the job anyway. I use the World Almanac, the Guinness Book, El Pais Anuario (the Spanish Almanac, more or less), the Britannica (we have it at my school’s library, and when it gets up and running on-line I’ll use that), Goode’s World Atlas, the Economist, Time, La Vanguardia (the main Barcelona newspaper) and the Herald Tribune as my sources. See you next Sunday at 8 PM at the Black Horse on Carrer Allada Vermell.
torq beat me to mentioning the CRC manuals. The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics is an amazing reference in its own right.
My reference shelf (in no particular order)
[ul][li]The World Almanac and Book of Facts (1996 edition)[/li][li]The Time World Atlas (1987 edition, woefully out of date)[/li][li]The EIT Review Manual (surprisingly useful)[/li][li]Red Cross Standard First Aid Manual[/li][li]Webster’s New World Dictionary[/li][li]Roget’s Thesarus[/li][li]The Radio Amateur’s Handbook[/li][li]The Amateur Astronomer’s Handbook[/li][li]The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll[/li][li]CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics[/li][li]CRC Standard Math Tables[/li][li]The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia[/li][li]The Encyclopedia of Games[/li][li]The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Science Fiction[/li][li]The Anarchists Cookbook[/li][li]The Vanishing Hitchhiker/The Mexican Pet/The Choking Doberman/The Baby Train[/li][li]Big Secrets/Bigger Secrets/Biggest Secrets[/li][li]Hiking Trails of North Georgia[/li][li]Reef Fish Identification[/li][li]The Diver’s Guide to Underwater Florida[/ul][/li]
And, not exactly on my shelf but on CD-ROM…
[ul][li]Microsoft Bookshelf[/li][li]Microsoft Encarta[/li][li]Street Atlas USA[/li][li]Topo USA[/li][li]Topo: North Georgia, Great Smokey Mountains and Atlanta[/li][li]Easy Language[/li][li]The complete National Geographic archive on CD-ROM! (this is why you have a computer; you just don’t know it yet).[/ul][/li]
“Drink your coffee! Remember, there are people sleeping in China.”
Dennis Matheson — dennis@mountaindiver.com
Hike, Dive, Ski, Climb — www.mountaindiver.com
My Pocket Oxford is lying on my computer. My big one is across the room. I also keep a big '32 F&W handy mainly because it disagrees with every other one of my dictionaries.
5 dozen foreign language helpers (but I only use a couple of them).
About a hundred software & computer texts. (Let’s discuss MS-DOS v3.20.)
My record albums occasionally come in handy, too.
I use my atlases and maps for something to look at while waiting through slow Internet connections.