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Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos ... do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?One dictionary; one English-French dictionary for those annoying untranslated bits in older novels; one thesaurus that I found at the Bookfest and thought was too good a bargain to pass up. I don’t look at them much - only when I need to, and then only when I remember. The dictionary got more of a work-out in years past, though - it was once my preferred choice of bedtime reading! (And, yes, I believe my mother does have photographic evidence somewhere!)
I have read writing guides, but I don’t actually own any, and I haven’t borrowed one in a while. My work-in-progress has moved on to the plotting-and-researching stage, and I’m becoming more hopeful about the possibility of taking part in NaNoWriMo this year (Yay!!). As for grammar and punctuation guides - I don’t even read those and persist in thinking I know enough already.
I use Google languages for those pesky untranslated bits.
ReplyDeleteSome writing guides are insightful but whenever I get my hands on a punctuation guide, I give it to somebody else (namely the newspaper staff I work with).
ReplyDeleteAmelia
(a copy editor)
Strange as it might seem I would have thought that a dictionary was too compulsive for bed time reading. Once I look up one word I always seem to find half a dozen others that I need to check as well and those lead to another dozen or so. I'd never get to sleep.
ReplyDeleteI just came across your blog today and I am really enjoying it. I like your BTT posts and have seen them on another book blog too. Are you the originator of the questions? If not where do you find them?
ReplyDeleteI have Eats, Shoots and Leaves and Strunk & White. Eats, Shoots and Leaves is a humor book, but it will incidentally teach you a lot about punctuation. At least the British variety. I loved it and highly recommend it.
ReplyDeleteI tend to enjoy books about writing (not dry style/grammar guides, but the fascinating ones) just because it's neat to get ideas and see how various authors think it should be done.
ReplyDelete