# What is the most useful book overall for...?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-book-overall-for/656303>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 21, 2013, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-book-overall-for/656303 "2013-04-21T12:43:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-book-overall-for/656303/1 "2013-04-21T12:43:27Z")

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I don’t want to hijack the “most useful book” thread, so I’m making a new one.

My question, as the OP, is what book is, overall, most useful for proper grammar **AND** proper use of words?

For the latter half of the question I’m referring to correct usage, as in “he _reigned_ over the kingdom”, not _reined_ or _rained_.

One of my pet peeves is people who don’t properly use words such as they’re/there/their.

Of course, Godwin’s law means that I’ve made a bad mistake somewhere in this OP, but I’m trying not to!😃

Feel free to use this thread to ask for the most useful book in your own area of interest.

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**Author:** ![Baron\_Skinley\_Von\_Clipper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@Baron\_Skinley\_Von\_Clipper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Skinley_Von_Clipper)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-book-overall-for/656303/2 "2013-04-21T14:57:53Z")

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Godwin’s law doesn’t mean what you think it means.

> **[Godwin's law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law)**
>
> Godwin's law, short for Godwin's law (or rule) of Nazi analogies, is an Internet adage asserting that as an online discussion grows longer (regardless of topic or scope), the probability of a comparison to Nazis or Adolf Hitler approaches 100%. 
> Promulgated by the American attorney and author Mike Godwin in 1990, Godwin's law originally referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions. He stated that he introduced Godwin's law in 1990 as an experiment in memetics. Later it was applied to ...

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**Author:** ![feppytweed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/feppytweed/32/4280_2.png) [@feppytweed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/feppytweed)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-book-overall-for/656303/3 "2013-04-21T15:49:44Z")

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I think she meant Gaudere’s law.

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**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-book-overall-for/656303/4 "2013-04-21T17:03:24Z")

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> [@feppytweed](#):
>
> I think she meant Gaudere’s law.

See what I mean?:smack:

:D:p

Now, about that grammar?🆒

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-useful-book-overall-for/656303/5 "2013-04-22T03:17:59Z")

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Godwin’s Law says that Hitler made grammatical mistakes and spelling errors too, thus proving how evil such mistakes are, and so are you if you make mistakes like that!