Allison Symes's Blog - Posts Tagged "reference-books"
Reference Books
Reference books are dipped into rather than read through as such, but they are invaluable.
Other than my combined dictionary/thesaurus, my favourite reference book is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. But I have to watch how long I spent with it.
Looking up an entry can so easily led me into looking up others I don’t really need at that moment. The book is a huge, fascinating world of words and their origins. What’s not to like there?!
So which reference books would you not be without and why?
I think it is easy to forget this “section” of the non-fiction world. I know many authors would be lost without these books, myself included.
It is not a case of using the nugget of information directly. Often it can be a case of looking something up and that will then affect what I get my character to do. That in turn has a direct result on the story outcome.
So let’s hear it for the reference books then!
Other than my combined dictionary/thesaurus, my favourite reference book is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. But I have to watch how long I spent with it.
Looking up an entry can so easily led me into looking up others I don’t really need at that moment. The book is a huge, fascinating world of words and their origins. What’s not to like there?!
So which reference books would you not be without and why?
I think it is easy to forget this “section” of the non-fiction world. I know many authors would be lost without these books, myself included.
It is not a case of using the nugget of information directly. Often it can be a case of looking something up and that will then affect what I get my character to do. That in turn has a direct result on the story outcome.
So let’s hear it for the reference books then!
Books To Dip Into
I love books you can dip into but what do I mean by that? Well, short story anthologies and flash fiction collections are ideal for this, of course. I will admit to being biased here given I have work in anthologies and two flash collections of my own out there.
But I also love the reference books to dip into as and when.
A great one for this is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable which goes into the origins of well known fables and phrases. Fascinating book to dip into. It’s a massive one as well - another one to avoid dropping on your foot.
I also love books like the Agatha Christie short story collections. Her novels I will read from cover to cover, naturally, but for the collections I can pick a story at random and then come back to another at random later if I wish. I find this to be a refreshing way to read from time to time.
I have a number of writing advice books on my shelves and I can dip into those to refer to specific topics now I know what it is I need to know.
When you start out as a writer, you generally don’t know. You find out what you do need to know about the writing world as you go along.
But I am at that point now where I can just refer back to selected chapters as and when I need it. (This frees up more time to read other things so win-win there and proves there is value to dipping into books at times).
But I also love the reference books to dip into as and when.
A great one for this is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable which goes into the origins of well known fables and phrases. Fascinating book to dip into. It’s a massive one as well - another one to avoid dropping on your foot.
I also love books like the Agatha Christie short story collections. Her novels I will read from cover to cover, naturally, but for the collections I can pick a story at random and then come back to another at random later if I wish. I find this to be a refreshing way to read from time to time.
I have a number of writing advice books on my shelves and I can dip into those to refer to specific topics now I know what it is I need to know.
When you start out as a writer, you generally don’t know. You find out what you do need to know about the writing world as you go along.
But I am at that point now where I can just refer back to selected chapters as and when I need it. (This frees up more time to read other things so win-win there and proves there is value to dipping into books at times).
