I seem to be using online reference resources more and more now, but I spend most of my life in a room full of books.

For years, my dictionary of choice was Webster's New World,, because my mom the English teacher said it was best (and she bought me one every time a new edition came out. As a used book sale somewhere, I picked up a Merriam-Webster's Deluxe Dictionary (published by Reader's Digest), and I really took a liking to it.

I've used the Oxford Annotated Bible since I majored in Theology in college - currently the NRSV with Aprocrypha. I also use a Synopsis of the Four Gospels, which puts Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John side-by-side so you can compare various versions of the gospel stories. I've used various commentaries - my current favorite is an old one by William Barclay. I teach a bible study based on the Catholic lectionary, so I use the lector workbook published by Liturgy Training Publications.

Most of my books are music books. I have most of the significant U.S. and Canadian folk song collection books, and a fair smattering of English and German and Yiddish songbooks. I let the online indexes guide me through these books, particularly Roud and the Traditional Ballad Index. Before the indexes got good, I would search the various Lomax books, the Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection, Randolph's Ozark Folksongs, the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Child, and the two Sing Out! "Collected Reprints books. Nowadays, I refer regularly to Sandburg's American Songbag, because I want to ensure that every song in that book has been posted at Mudcat - I posted the index, and I'm turning the song names into links as I find them.

I also use an assortment of travel, wildflower, and bird books.

-Joe-