In an earlier post, I showed a copy of my much-used (and abused) Synonym Finder, ed. by J.I. Rodale. I love, love, love this thesaurus!
Here are a couple of other books I simply couldn’t live without:
A Dictionary of American Proverbs, ed. by Wolfgang Mieder, Stewart A. Kingsbury and Kelsie B. Harder
Great American Folklore, by Kemp Battle.
I use these shamelessly to come up with metaphors and similes, as well as lines of dialogue for my characters. I rarely use exactly what I find in them, but these texts have helped me immensely.
It’s foggy as to which of these titles inspired me to write one of my favorite lines in The Magic Kerchief (tragically out of print).
The main character, Griselda — a woman who doesn’t suffer fools gladly — says, in defense of her sharp tongue: “At least my words are not all vine and no fruit.”
I love that line!
And I love these resources which inspire me to tweak and twist and tussle with words.
Oh, Kirby, we just read The Magic Kerchief the other night at bedtime – You-Know-Who adores it! Griselda will always be very much alive to us.
Oh, thank you, Holly. It was a heartbreak for me when MK went OP. Teachers and schools just loved that book . . .in addition to You-Know-Who!
C’est la vie.
Kirby, these sounds like great books to use. And I’m sorry we didn’t get a copy of The Magic Kerchief while it was still in stores. We are HUGE fans of yours in our house (and I just wrapped up Nubs for your little buddy Alice…shhhh!)
Oh, thanks, Martha! I keep hoping the Spud Sisters will do a review of Nubs — maybe they will, after Christmas! 😉