An illuminating exploration of reference books through time and across cultures, from the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi to Wikipedia.
Jack Lynch is a professor of English at Rutgers University. He specializes in English literature of the eighteenth century and the history of the English language. He is the author of several books including The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of 'Proper' English, from Shakespeare to South Park and Samuel Johnson's Insults: A Compendium of Snubs, Sneers, Slights, and Effronteries from the Eighteenth-Century Master. He lives in New Jersey.
Lively and erudite . . . Lynch offers a reference book of reference
books, a magical volume of infinite regress . . . You Could Look It
Up can serve as a reminder of our enduring and impudent desire to
keep the chaotic universe in some kind of neat and serviceable
order.
*The New York Times Book Review*
[A] wholly absorbing chronicle of the reference book.
*The Wall Street Journal*
A casual but fascinating read that feels like sneaking into a
library after hours, it offers an absorbing glimpse into the
world-changing and frequently turbulent history of the reference
shelf.
*NPR.org*
As readers make their ways through this book, they are certain to
discover a wide variety of must-haves . . . Great stuff for anyone
who loves knowledge, deep or trivial.
*Kirkus Reviews*
Anyone who enjoys reference books will embrace this erudite
compilation and Lynch's appreciative, fluent commentary.
*Publishers Weekly*
No harmless drudge he, [Lynch] takes a broad view of his subject
and includes lively pages on several dozen radically different
works . . . The serendipity of its contents is part of the book’s
fun [along with] its high anecdotal and amusement quotient.
*Washington Post*
Especially fun for librarians, You Could Look It Up will entertain
and enlighten many scholarly inclined readers and anyone who loves
traditional reference works.
*Booklist*
Fascinating . . . You Could Look It Up is a history not simply of
reference books as a genre but of the broader question of how we
organize information and why.
*Shelf Awareness*
You Could Look It Up is an entertaining, enlightening look into the
vast, complex world of reference books and their tireless compilers
across the ages, extending far beyond the familiar works of Samuel
Johnson, Peter Roget, and Noah Webster.
*Steve Kleinedler, executive editor, THE AMERICAN HERITAGE
DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE*
A stunning tour de force, Lynch's new book is compulsively
readable. No one has ever packed so much fascinating information
about reference books into one volume. Polymaths of the world,
delight!
*Bryan A. Garner, chief editor of BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY and author
of GARNER'S MODERN ENGLISH USAGE*
highly readable . . . exuberant
*The American Conservative*
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