Seven books I keep close because I love them
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
A writer keeps seven beloved books on an elbow-high shelf for inspiration while writing.
The shelf holds Roget's Thesaurus (4th edition), used not for synonyms but for its conceptual hierarchy that refines ideas. Other books include Sir Thomas Browne's prose for its Renaissance curiosity, Boccaccio's Decameron (Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin translation) for its humanist tales, van Heijenoort's From Frege to Gödel for key logic papers, and Comenius's Orbis Sensualium Pictus, the first illustrated children's book, used to learn Latin alongside subjects like tame fowl. The author prefers the 4th edition thesaurus over the 8th, finding it more useful.
What commenters are saying
Commenters appreciate the thesaurus's misunderstood structure, with several noting that many editions abandon Roget's original classification-index system. One commenter, the developer of OneLook Thesaurus, says the site's concept clusters are directly inspired by Roget's work. Others recommend The Wind in the Willows for falling asleep, debate Bible translations (KJV vs. NIV vs. LSB), and share personal favorites like The Crazy Ape by Albert Szent-Györgyi.
A brief exchange discusses Samson's last words in the original Hebrew versus standard English translations.