Dictionaries, and reference books in general, are in trouble. These days there’s more googling than reference book-perusing. John Walsh reflects on the dictionaries that once acted as writers’ essential companions, the inherent treasures of print dictionaries and the perils of online dictionaries.
“It’s easy to feel a nostalgic throb for the old reference library on your desk. As the dictionary market steadily declines, and sales of thesauruses plummet by a shocking 24 per cent, the very word ‘thesaurus’ has never sounded more like a dinosaur. But we should not be downhearted. We could be seeing the start of something, rather than the end. I predict a retro-revolution in writers’ vocabularies.”
(via Book Bench)
