The daily special
Originally published at spitkitten dot com. You can comment here or there.
Of all the writing reference books I’ve ever owned, by and far the most awesomely useful one is one that I almost never see mentioned by other writers: The Random House Word Menu. Old versions are out of print, but available at used book stores, or you can do as I did and find one on eBay for a dollar. BEST dollar I’ve ever spent. You can find it on Amazon or from the publisher.
Now, I am pro all reference books. I love them. I have been known known to read reference books for a good time. But the Word Menu has consistently been my go-to books since the day it landed in my hot little hands.
What rules about the Word Menu is that it is exactly what it says: a menu of words, organized by topic and subtopic. Writing about a building and can’t remember what the narrow word strip that covers the seam between boards? Look up building and machine parts under structural components in the technology category, then scan the list (it’s “batten,” BTW). Or writing something about photography and need a list of several different kinds of photography? Look under applied arts, photography, then types of photography-and viola, find a list of different kinds of photography (aerial, animation, black and white, cinematography, daguerreotype, etc). Listd of types of cooking oils, wind instruments, verbs of sight, shapes, types of disasters, hair styles, diseases, railroad argot, architectural facades, tailoring details…have I tempted you, yet?
What’s the reference book you can’t imagine life without?