On the Tip of Your Tongue: The Word/Name/Place Finder (Signet)
by Irene M. Franck
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Book Summary Information
Author: Irene M. FranckEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1990-11-03
ISBN: 0451162811
Number of pages: 1
Publisher: Signet
Book Reviews of On the Tip of Your Tongue: The Word/Name/Place Finder (Signet)
Book Review: Delivers as promised. Great offline reference guide and fact-checker
Summary: 5 Stars
Love this book! Very handy. Bought it to prepare for trivia competition, and well worth the $80+ dollars I paid, a justified price for an in-demand paperback that is no longer in print. I have not spotted any factual inaccuracies (even though I haven't fact-checked everything in here), and for my purposes it was very important for me to be able to trust a fact book, or else I could pay serious consequences in terms of my goals. The editors and fact-checkers did a good job, especially in a time of pre-internet/pre-Google era. These 600+ pages are well-organized such that it's easy to find the facts on demand.
Since it is American-published, a lot of content is weighted toward American facts and figures, such as the presidencies of the 20th century. Don't get me wrong--there's plenty of global facts, but American emphasis happens to fit into what I'm studying. This is a plus for me, but could be a negative for other readers.
This book is reminiscent of a dictionary/thesaurus, with lists and lists and short definitions. Since this out-of-print book is 600 pages, I'll list some of the sections in here as a sample of the breadth of this book: Modern Novelists and Short Story Writers (title and author list), In Other Words (common foreign phrases and their English translation), Literary Forms and Genres, People of Science and Invention, Christian Saints, Religious Holidays, International Foods and Dining, Key Figures in World History, Mountains and Peaks, Islands, Manias and Obsession, Classic Movie Duos, The Brain and Nervous System, The Heart and Circulatory System, etc!! As you can see, Irene Franck tried to cover all the bases with this one.
The downsides of this book are: since it is out of date (first printing was 1990), certain geographical facts are also out of date. For example: it still mentions "USSR" and lists some countries such as Turkmenistan and Latvia and Tajikistan as part of "USSR cities and regions". Another downside that's a matter of personal preference for me is that it lists its index in the beginning instead of at the end of the book--a bit annoying when you want to get right into it.
I agree with the other reviewer: please print an updated edition of this great little book!
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