I had an exciting package of books arrive from Amazon yesterday – half for Libro’s reference section and half for ME (spending some of my vouchers I’d been saving up). I thought my clients, potential clients and Friends Of Libro might be interested in what Libro now has on its bookshelf…

I really need up to date reference materials to use for Libro, especially if I’m going to be blogging about usage, so now I’ve paid my tax for 2009-10 I have used some of my profit for these. Note: yes, there are online versions of many of these, but they cost as much as the hard copy to access PER YEAR, while the new editions don’t tend to come out yearly. So, for the time being, I am using printed copies, although this may change in the future.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary – 11th edition (luxury edition) – I realised my current Oxford Concise was bought with money I had for my 18th Birthday and is the 7th edition. Oh, and luxury means I get a bookmark and there are fingerholes in the text block so you can access each letter easily.

R.M. Ritter – New Hart’s Rules – this is the companion to the wonderful New Oxford Dictionary For Writers and Editors (which I actually adore as it has all those words you’re not sure how to spell or use!) and explains the rules of punctuation, etc. It comes highly recommended by my copy-editing peers.

Chicago Manual Of Style – 16th edition – this is the American be-all and end-all of rules on everything from typesetting to the most obscure parts of speech and uses of punctuation. I do have quite a few US customers (having worked for an American company, I am bi-lingual in American and British English, and really enjoy the differences and similarities), and this is really useful. As well as FASCINATING! I actually have two copies of this in the house at the moment, as I borrowed my library’s copy to check how useful it would be.

Norm Goldstein – The Associated Press Stylebook – another one for my US customers, this is a guide that a lot of PR agencies and other media people use.

What’s your favourite reference book, and why?