A Writer's Library

With the internet on hand you may wonder - "Why have a library, when everything you want is right at your finger tips?" While I would hate to be without all the wonderful information available to me on line, I often find that when I'm writing, accessing the internet is more of a distraction than a help. If you are like me and love books, you will already have a substantial library reflecting your taste. However, when it comes to books on the craft of writing I find that I am easily persuaded to look at 'so and so's' book on editing, grammar, etc.. So listed below is the general consensus of my many books on the craft of writing, and what they feel a writer should have in their library.

• A Comprehensive Style Dictionary - such as an Oxford's Writer's Dictionary which provides an authoritative guide on numerous issues of style and usage such as, spelling dilemmas, names of people and places, foreign words and phrases, when to italicize, abbreviations, acronyms, capitalization and punctuation.
• A General Dictionary - If you have an interest in the historical development of English Words you will also need an etymological dictionary which gives examples of historical and archaic usage , dates of first usage and obsolescence e.g. Shorter Oxford Dictionary. Collins also puts out dictionaries of current word usage for both American and English e.g. Idioms, Phrasal Verbs, Slang, in Collin's Cobuild English Dictionary series.
• A Thesaurus - provides lists of antonyms and synonyms of words
• A Glossary of Literary Terms - to assist in identifying figures of speech, genres, types of poems, different rhyming schemes etc.
• A Guide to Writing - this should be in your chosen area and the selection is limitless. Go to your library, borrow books from friends, see which author resonates with you or it will sit on your shelf and gather dust.
  
• Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers - usually available through a government publishing service, and gives the nationally accepted ways of writing and present certain words, phrases and names on the page. From my perspective as a romance writer I have found that most Publishing Houses have very definite criteria on their submissions sites. If not read the genre and published books to get the feel for it.
  
• Grammar Reference Book - again there are many to choose from. Lynne Truss - 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves'; Strunk and White - 'The Elements of Style' are two that are very good.
• Spelling - for faulty spellers a book on spelling is a must, such as 'Spelling Made Easy' by Barbara Dykes and Constance Thomas
  
• Writer's Marketplace - This covers every area of writing -and is published in most countries around the world and sets out the different Publishing Houses in that country, what they publish, and how to contact them. The only problem is that it needs to be updated annually and you need to check before sending things off as details can change from date of detail submission to the date the book becomes available.
• Atlas -
  
• Almanac - can be handy for pinning down that date in history - such a Pears Encyclopedia or accessing something similar on line.
  

These are just a few of the basics others you can include would be books on: Book of Quotations (Times); Who Wrote That (Oxford); Brewers Phrases and Fables (Cassell); Baby Names; Random Houses - Websters Word Menu - to name a few.
On Line, the options are limitless - I personally find Ask Jeeves, and Wicopedia are the best places to start. Hope this helps.