The Times Book of Quotations

Collects quotes by individuals from Hank Aaron to Emile Zola covering subjects including cats, intelligence, envy, Switzerland, and prophecy.

This collection of more than 17,000 classic and contemporary quotations is organized thematically around more than 600 broad topics, such as adventure, mediocrity, and worrying and includes familiar and unfamiliar, contemporary and classic sayings from known and lesser-known international figures. Some of the quotations have been taken from the "Quotes of the Week" feature in the "Weekend Section" of the London Times. Within the broad themes, typical entries are arranged alphabetically by name and feature birth and death years, occupation, nationality, source, and date. The author index adds to the usefulness of this source but was not particularly helpful for looking up such oft-quoted persons as Ambrose Bierce, Sir Peter Ustinov, or Oscar Wilde. Similar quotations about needing a wife attributed to Britt Ekland and Joan Collins are categorized in different thematic sections. Seekers of contemporary quotations may appreciate the inclusion of rock musician Bob Geldof, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, cartoonist Scott Adams, author Margaret Drabble, and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, among others. According to writer Fran Lebowitz, "The best fame is a writer's fame: it's enough to get a table at a good restaurant, but not enough that you get interrupted when you eat." Larger collections will appreciate this resource's size and breadth for the price, even if you have a good stock of quotation books. Elizabeth Connor, Medical Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Charleston
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Want to learn what American rapper Ice-T said about racism, Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini about smoking, and American actress Mae West and English novelist Henry Fielding about gossip? Looking for some pithy quotes on leadership or libraries? Consult these new thematic quotations dictionaries. The Oxford Dictionary of Thematic Quotations offers more than 7,000, and The Times Book of Quotations contains more than 17,000 quotations.

Of the two, the Oxford title is easier to use. Quotations are arranged under more than 600 themes, from Ability to Youth, and then alphabetically by author. Each quotation within a thematic grouping is assigned a number. An alphabetical listing of themes appears in the front, and an author index in the back. Listed under each person in the index are a brief biographical description and keywords identifying his or her quotes, along with a reference (theme and number) to each quotation's location. Within the dictionary, cross-references help tie together related themes. These are often both synonyms and antonyms, providing for interesting contrast; for instance, from Lies there are see also references to Deception, Propaganda, and Truth. Each entry for a quotation identifies the author or speaker; gives vital statistics such as profession, nationality, and birth and death dates; and notes the year and original source of the quote. Context is also sometimes provided.

Like Oxford, Times arranges quotations under more than 600 themes and then alphabetically by author. For each author there is a brief description (although this is missing from the first quote in the book, Gwendolyn Brooks on Abortion) and birth and death dates. For each quote the date of the original source is noted, and occasionally the context is explained. Quotations are not numbered. See also references, not as copious as Oxford's, are indicated by arrows. There is an alphabetical list of themes at the beginning of the volume, and an author index in the back. The index provides only author names with a sometimes very long string of page numbers, for example, nearly 70 page references for Ralph Waldo Emerson. This index is not as helpful as Oxford's, which identifies each author's quotes by keywords and themes.

Though there is some overlap between the two volumes, differences are considerable. Under the theme Love, Oxford has 58 quotations, while Times has more than 200. Only a handful of the quotes are the same (including one from Cher: "If grass can grow through cement, love can find you at every time in your life"). As might be expected with its greater numbers, Times also has a greater variety of authors, with quotes on love from Boethius, Marc Chagall, John Donne, Kahlil Gibran, Matt Groening, Franz Kafka, and Lily Tomlin, to name just a few. In Oxford a few of the themes are proper names: Ronald Reagan (one of the few Americans) along with Winston Churchill, James Joyce, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Margaret Thatcher, among others. Times includes more non-English-language sources and often gives non-English quotes in their original languages as well as in translation. Both dictionaries are quite British, with a wide assortment of British Isles personages and some British themes (the British sense of football, for example).

Their thematic approach makes these collections comparable to Random House Webster's Quotationary (1999), which offers more than 20,000 quotations and draws on many more U.S. sources. None of the volumes has a keyword index, making it difficult to find specific quotations. Both The Oxford Dictionary of Thematic Quotations and The Times Book of Quotations are recommended as supplemental purchases for libraries with large quotation collections. Mary Ellen Quinn
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