How to Start Your Own Reference Library
A guide to building your own reference library inspired by author Marion Roach Smith.
Some books in my reference library. Photo: Tanya Clarke 2021
This was all going to be different. I had organised all the books I’ve read about creative writing and had started writing a review list of my collection.
All the books I thought might be helpful for the aspiring writer, the tips and ideas I've used when creating my weekly writing prompts.
And then I began reading The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith - A Thoroughly Non-standardized Text for Writing and Life.
This thin volume of 134 pages provides us with Smith's approach to the craft of writing memoir. A guide to writing with intent for blog posts, magazine/newspaper articles, letters, or perhaps a book for a loved one. And while Smith focuses on writing memoir there are many ideas here that I think could be appropriated for all types of writing. Smith doesn't think writing prompts and exercises are helpful or necessary. She advises we “toss them out!” In fact, she says many of her students need to be rehabilitated from this practice. Oh god. I’m now re-thinking my whole website.
At the risk of throwing out the baby with the bathwater (or however the phrase goes), I try to remember my philosophy of remaining open to new ideas. And Smith’s writing is so wonderful it’s hard not to become completely absorbed. There are lots of things to love in this book, not least the idea of a reference book collection.
Those Creative Writing Books
I’ve read some of the books by the major players, those books that often feature on lists of creative writing. Good job I’ve decided not to add to the many. There’s King, Karr and LaPlante. Plus Palahnuik and Tan, another King and a Pullman. All wonderful writers who’ve produced worthy tomes that I've found both fascinating and helpful.
Smith has an alternative list of useful books for writers. Ones that can be found in your local library or bought second-hand if necessary. Smith is a journalist and teacher. Research is an important and necessary part of her work. However, for our purposes of creative writing, I would like to add that there is such a thing as too much research. The process can hobble your chances of getting a story down. Get a draft written first then begin to fill in the accuracy gaps whatever that might be - world events or forensic science or the plants growing outside your window. Unless you’re creating a newly imagined world in which case all bets are off.
Smith lists a number of reference books to have "nearby at all times". I thought I'd see if I can fulfill any of this list with the books I already own. Here goes.
Your Guide to Building a Collection of Reference Books
A Good Modern Dictionary
I have a Collins Canadian Dictionary I bought for my kids a couple of years ago. I don't think I've ever seen either of them pick it up. Not once. Honestly? I'm not sure I have either. I’ve also found on the shelf The Pocket Oxford Dictionary belonging to my husband. The word pocket suggests something small and slim. This is several centimetres thick and would need a bag to carry it around in. But I’m being pedantic. I shall make sure these are on my desk at all times. Maybe that will help.
Roget's Thesaurus
I can’t believe I don’t have a thesaurus. I’m often looking up words online but Smith advises us:
"We will not even discuss using the one on your computer, except to say that it's forbidden."
Oops. I've been found out.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
I don't know what this is. I'm guessing this is American and if you are American you might know this. If you’re not American, I’ve found an app that isn’t quite what we’re looking for here but I only have so much time in a day.
My equivalent is The Penguin Dictionary of English Idioms by Daphne M. Gulland & David Hinds-Howell.
What is an idiom?
"...a combination of words with a special meaning that cannot be inferred from its separate parts. For example, John couldn't say boo to a goose..."
English is nothing if not a hilarious language.
A Rhyming Dictionary
I'm not entirely sure what this is. I certainly don’t have anything similar. As a child, I did love reading any poems or stories that rhymed: anything by Dr Seuss, everything in the Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear, and all the weird and peculiar poems in Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Perhaps these should be on my shopping list.
The Bible (or other religious text)
I used to have a small bible with a hardback cover. The paper was tissue-thin. I’m surprised the pages never tore. At school, I owned a bible with a green cover. With that same thin paper again. A lot of notes and scribbles and doodles (let’s be honest) lined the margins here. I'm not in the least bit religious now but I do enjoy the stories of the Old Testament. Of course, you may worship within another religion so your religious text will be different; for example, the Quran, the Torah, the ancient sacred texts of Hinduism or the teachings of Buddha. Select what works for you.
A Book of Days: Referencing Famous Things that Happened on Various Dates
There isn’t anything like this on my bookshelf. If I need to find something out about world events I usually call on the world of google. Might be good to change that up and use something more accurate than relying on the whims of Wiki.
The Complete Shakespeare
There are no Shakespeare books and plays in this house - I'm pretty sure we left all those in storage back in the UK. I'm not looking to buy any more. I studied various plays for English Literature exams when a teenager; Hamlet, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Henry IVth or was it Henry Vth? I don't remember. I remember having to watch the old film with Laurence Olivier as the King. Or was that Hamlet? I’ve never been so bored. But there’s no doubt that Shakespeare did write rollicking good stories. My eldest daughter has been reading Macbeth at school. We’ve found what looks like a great movie adaptation from 2015 starring Michael Fassbender. If you’re researching writing tragedy or comedy or something historical Shakespeare is probably your man.
Several Standard Texts of Language Usage
If you're writing in English then there are any number of books available to you. If you're writing in another language do please add any helpful books in the comments below.
If English is a second language for you but you wish to write in English, here’s a great article listing some advice from a non-native English speaker.
The book I use is Dreyer's English by Benjamin Dreyer. It's the best most entertaining one on the subject of English grammar I've found. The book is written in American English which may frustrate some British English readers. I'm not quite sure where Canadian English sits within this land of words. Maybe more British than American? I don't know. I’m lost already.
A Word and Phrase Origins Book
For those seeking to understand the English language, this book or something similar could be useful. English can be terribly complicated to a non-native speaker and some words and phrases make no sense at all. English is my first and only language and even then I don't understand some of the words and phrases of my mother tongue. This book is on my shopping list.
A Dictionary of Symbolism
Not easy to find one definitive volume. There is The Book of Symbols which gets some good reviews, however, it is expensive. Perhaps a birthday gift request? I don't have anything resembling this in my bookshelf and yet would have been just the sort of book I would've enjoyed as a child.
An Atlas: One Up-to-Date and One Hopelessly Out-of-Date
I do have an atlas of sorts, The Atlas of Small Islands which I absolutely love but I could do with a more general world atlas. I'm often peering at small pixelated images of countries on my computer trying to work out the borders of a European country or showing my daughters where I was born. Out-of-date maps are equally fascinating. I found a large one of Canada in a store when we first moved here. It's rolled up somewhere. I need to dig it out.
Any Other Old Damn Thing You Want
“Even with the convenience of Wikipedia and other digital research tools available, a full twenty-four-volume standard encyclopedia is nearby for me, as are horticultural encyclopedias; a complete set of field guides to bugs, birds, plants and mammals; several books on how things work and how they were invented and the like; as well as my copy of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson and the War of Art by Steven Pressfield...”
— p.44 The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith
Our house needs a really good encyclopedia. Google isn't enough. I know! What am I saying? How can that be? Easily really. How often have you googled something and not found what you're looking for? You try changing the wording of your search. Nothing. Or the opposite. Five million results with the same old information. I love the internet but it can be frustrating. So I think I will invest in an encyclopedia. The time has come. I'd like to access that joy I had when I was a kid learning about different types of dinosaurs or the Egyptian pyramids or when fish first grew legs and crawled out of the ocean. A much more satisfying experience than bloodshot eyes and a claw-tight mouse hand from too much time spent at the computer.
The End
Well, not quite. This is just the beginning! I’m excited about the books I can add to my collection. I hope this is useful for you too. If you have any further ideas for what you might need for your references please do add in the comments below. Thanks for reading.
