Beyond my sagging book-shelves, my reference is generally Google.
For off-line work, our 'holiday' lap-top has a couple of modest encyclopaedias installed. And, I'll take a USB hard-drive with my current down-loads...
I'd really, really like the *full* Oxford English dictionary on disk, but I can only get the indifferent 'Concise', which keeps head-butting the aged lap-top's OS. Webster's College etc are not up to my niche needs...
The eponymous original EB (1911 ?) would be handy, as the articles' retro-tech and sheer detail would probably spawn inspiration...
Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 523 Location: Upstate New York
Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:56 am
My usual references:
Roget's College Thesaurus
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
The Oxford American Desk Dictionary (better for syllable count, which can be important for poetry composition)
Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language (1924 edition - perfect for those archaic and obscure words I throw into my poetry every so often)
Dictionary.com
For my works based on fairy folklore, Katharine Brigg's An Encyclopedia of Fairies is an indispensible resource.
And I have literally hundreds of books on medieval history, medieval warfare, and arms and armour for those times I write medieval-based fantasy, or more importantly, when I compose illustrations of medieval or medieval-style warriors. _________________ "I'm going to do what the warriors of old did. I'm going to recite poetry!"
Joined: 30 Mar 2006 Posts: 231 Location: Kent, England, U.K.
Re: Favorite Writers' Reference
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 1:55 pm
"The Oxford Rhyming Dictionary".
"Collins Dictionary for Writer's and Editors".
"The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics".
"Collins Oxford Dictionary 21st Century Edition".
"The New Oxford Book of English Verse" etc.
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