BS: Reference Books you OWN and use often

Subject: RE: BS: Reference Books you OWN and use often
From: Bettynh
Date: 18 Sep 10 - 02:13 PM

Not a book, but I have displayed and use a relatively large world map. It's getting dated, and I'm thinking seriously of replacing it with an upside down world map.

Subject: RE: BS: Reference Books you OWN and use often
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Sep 10 - 03:53 PM

I've just checked my "Atlas" (a book which I own and which fits the bill required of this thread to a tee!) and I see that, indeed, there are no recent records for meadow saxifrage in that area, though there are numerous records for the Peak District. Are you in VC 58 or 59? Sadly, there are no Cornish records for this plant as a native species. :-(

Subject: RE: BS: Reference Books you OWN and use often
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Sep 10 - 04:57 PM

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-

Subject: RE: BS: Reference Books you OWN and use often
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 04:57 AM

"I'm an ex-Lancashire lad, hailing from Radcliffe."

Why am I not surprised by that, Steve? Lancashire folk seem to have played a major role in the development of the science of botany - a role which ought to be better known!
The Manchester Field Club had an outing to Radcliffe last year and we walked along the canal (Bury and Bolton - possibly?) towpath. The canal flora represented a veritable text book of water plants (in spite of the odd pram and supermarket trolley).

I live in VC 59 (South Lancashire). Just across the Mersey, to the south, is VC 58 (Cheshire). I found the Saxifrage in VC 59. There is a record in Leo Grindon's 'Flora of Manchester' (pub. 1859) but I've seen no later records.

The VC 59 recorder doesn't seem to be talking to me at the moment. I'm hoping it's because he's recently changed his e-mail address and not because of something I did or said!

Subject: RE: BS: Reference Books you OWN and use often
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 07:09 AM

I was friendly with the Rev.C.E.Shaw (no relation) in my youth - he was an author of the then local flora if I remember rightly. We went on several outings, one along that canal and another to Nob End, a Victorian alkaline waste site which had an incredible assemblage of exotic plants. He had a real penchant for waste tips! We also took him up Penyghent once to see the purple saxifrage, which he'd never seen before. I knew the flora of the Bury-Bolton canal quite well and I have my detailed notebooks still from the early 70s. Last time I looked it seems that Water Soldier had gone a bit rampant, a plant I didn't see there at all 40 years ago. There are a couple of spots where Royal Fern poked out of the towpath wall, one near Bury and the other, which I believe I was the first to find, near Radcliffe town centre.

Subject: RE: BS: Reference Books you OWN and use often
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 06:08 PM

I've heard of Rev. Shaw but, sadly, I never met him. I once found a plant called Hairy Buttercup (Ranunculus sardous) on Chorlton Meadows. I was very excited but subsequently learned that Rev. Shaw had got there before me.

I noticed the Water Soldier on the canal - but according to our walk leader it rarely, if ever, flowers.

I've just, this evening, received an e-mail from the VC 59 recorder - he's given me rather a lot of work to do (should have kept my mouth shut!). By coincidence I also had an e-mail from the VC 58 recorder telling me that I'd identified one plant I'd told him about correctly and another incorrectly ... oh well, never mind!

Subject: RE: BS: Reference Books you OWN and use often
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 06:20 PM

The Larousse Gastronomique. Best food reference there is.

Dictionaries, especially old dictionaries, in either English or French (but not a French-English one). A German-French one, though.

Gry's Anatomy.

Subject: RE: BS: Reference Books you OWN and use often
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 07:37 PM

Vicar Shaw got everywhere before everybody! He was quite a character and he cultivated people all over the place in strategic locations as his scouts. He called me "the Radcliffe eye"! He was big mates with Roy Lancaster, whom, sadly, I never met.

Subject: RE: BS: Reference Books you OWN and use often
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 08:57 PM

I just uncovered "The Ashley Book of Knots" in a bookcase.

I have not use it recently, but I intend to now....especially since there are now sites like this online which show you animations of how to do many.

Subject: RE: BS: Reference Books you OWN and use often
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Sep 10 - 11:06 AM

My computer seems to have taken over most of the "reference book" functions around here. However, I do have some reference books on WWII airplanes that come in quite handy for my hobbycraft, and I have some alternative health books and Taoist texts that I often consult too, in order to stay healthy and happy.