Dictionaries definitely dominate my book shelves. One of the first books that truly captivated me as a small child was my father's old blue backed Webster's Dictionary with a 1948 copyright date. This book was an integral part of my learning to read. Throughout my school years I always owned some kind of dictionary and used it often. When I began building my own home library, I bought many traditional types of dictionaries as well as specialized dictionaries on topics such as music, bible, and whatever other interesting collections I could find. My present wife also brought a number of dictionaries to add to our library collection, including several in Spanish. The irony now is that I rarely use book form dictionaries since I now will refer to online resources. Still my book dictionaries are nice to have. After all, over time words sometimes change in meaning so it's nice to be able to refer to an older source to see what some words used to mean.
The New Oxford American Dictionary
This is one of several large comprehensive dictionaries that my wife and I own. There are others of a similar nature as well as other dictionaries that are smaller or more specialized. If for no other reason, I like to have big books like this on my shelves because I think they look kind of cool.
Dictionaries, Dictionaries, Dictionaries
Here are a few types of dictionaries that are on our living room shelves. I sometimes refer to The American Heritage Dictionary since it is so close at hand, but so far haven't found any need to use the others. But I like how they look. Many more dictionaries are in shelves in our upstairs hallway and in our home offices. There are some in our garage too. Anyone need to look up a word?
"Dummies" Books
Yeah, I've gotten some of these "Dummies" and "Idiots" books. Haven't really referred to them much, but at the time I purchased them they seemed like they could be useful to me. It's a clever series though.
Deliverance by James Dickey
After the movie blew me away I learned about the author of the original novel in some of my college literature classes. James Dickey had already established himself as a highly regarded Southern poet and his prose writing reflects his poetic background. I read the book right after seeing the film and was very impressed how closely the two correlated. But then, Dickey had written the screenplay as well so no wonder the two mediums told the same story so much in the same way. I've had this paperback version since 1972. Just look at the price I paid for it! Do you remember those cheap paperback book prices?
The Insecure Writer's Support Group
Join us on the first Wednesday of each month in Alex J. Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Support Group--a forum of writers who gather to talk about writing and the writer's life. For a complete list of participants visit Alex's Blog.
The co-hosts for the the April 5 posting of the IWSG are Jemima Pett, Nancy Gideon, and Natalie Aguirre!
April 5 question - Do you remember writing your first book? What were your thoughts about a career path on writing? Where are you now and how is it working out for you? If you're at the start of the journey, what are your goals?
The closest I've come to writing any books is when I did NANO a couple of times years ago. Though I got a lot written for both of them, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to finish these books. I kind of lost interest in them so I've put these on hold. Maybe someday...
For now my biggest writing insecurity is finishing my posts for the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. I waited to the last minute to start on these and now I'm frantic. Having somewhat limited computer access in recent months has made things even worse. Remember that saying about the "best laid plans"? Yeah, that's me...
Do you still refer to book form dictionaries? What is your favorite dictionary? Have you seen the film Deliverance, or read the book?
