If I Had to Choose Available to Purchase

The charge is clear. Ignoring the intrusion of reality, Jim Rettig asks you to create a reference service of ten sources on a desert island. Let's, then, imagine a primitive, yet pleasant spot where prospects of good health and food are matched by comfortable housing and a total lack of smiling, sincere television newscasters. Your companions are compatible, enjoy conversation, and are fond, particularly, of browsing in reference books. At this point the rules of experience, education and culture foretell the magic list of ten. One may name the works quickly, and without much need for discussion: World Book, World Almanac, Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the American Language, Oxford English Dictionary, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Times Atlas of the World, Statistical Abstract of the U.S., United States Government Manual, Statesman's Yearbook, and the Dictionary of American Biography.