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- Verified Buyer
For writing on any topic, this is a handy tool. It makes your thinking more organized.The Word Menu helps when I know there should be a better word, but it eludes me even when I use the thesaurus. By opening the menu to the topic of my paper, an enormous array of related words is revealed and ready for the plucking. While later editions have been published in a smaller format, they are more difficult to use because the font within has been shrunk correspondingly. I was so pleased with my purchase, I ordered two more as gifts for fellow writers!I first ran across this years ago, but it was only last week when my ex found a copy on a shelf at a restaurant we were at. I ordered it immediately on getting home, and I have not been disappointed. It is organized much more usefully than your average thesaurus. I expect it will shortly be as worn as my favorite dictionary. If you love words, this is one you should not pass up!This book has helped me find action words for my nouns so many time.Great book!"Word Menu" is the richest vocabulary book I've encountered with. The book contains an endless list of terms I've never heard before nor did I know they existed, as:"hebephrenia: a form of schizophrenia involving disintegration of personality, giggling and grinning and childish behavior". Yet another one "snuff film (flick): movie that supports to record an actual killing"; Shocking. Just in a single volume the whole universe of human knowledge is encapsulated. I can't think of a subject that isn't included.Students may benefit by using this book as a memory refresher before exams since most of science categories are arranged as a textbook that contains in addition to terms definitions , the basic laws of (e.g.) Physic : Newton's law of motion (all three), electricity, optics mechanics, Archimedes principle, Einstein's equation of energy-matter relationship etc. Astronomy, Meteorology, Chemistry, do not fall behind. The basic laws are compiled in just few pages and ready to be used. One does not need to browse endless books to dig these laws and terms out. Definitions are concise and clear.The "Word Menu" book was originally intended for the writer, it is based on finding a word through an idea and associations. But It turns out the search task is not as easy as expected, I faced the following inconveniences:Let's say you are looking for words that convey fear. The trivial word "fear" is not listed in the index, (neither are "sad", "sadness" and others). One needs to think of the word "phobias" (page 401) in order to get all the listed possibilities of human's fears. As it stands now the searcher has to go through a time consuming process consists of several stages: Choose the relevant chapter # 13 "Social sciences", go to categories that according to one's understanding may have the word he searches for, in this case "Psychology" (page 398) then you may hesitate between two sub-categories: "Phobias" and "Manias" you have to check both; bottom line, a long time is invested for search of one word. These cumbersome manipulations could have been avoided by adding simple usable daily words; serving as "keywords" with cross reference leading to the relevant sub-category. I'm almost sure that after repeated usages one may find his shortcuts.Another problem is the definition of terms which are sometimes too short therefore incomplete .For instance as the word "discovery" in the Law category (p. 316) , defined as:"pretrial fact finding through interrogatories, dispositions and other investigation procedure". This definition is incomplete. "Black's Law Dictionary" 9th edition ISBN #978-031419942 (p. 533) states: "Compulsory disclosure at party's request of information that relates to the litigation". Black's also contain the paraphrased Glazer's definition. The word "discovery" is listed only in one sub-category "laws, procedures and court proceedings", but is relevant in more than one as in "decisions, judgments, and conditions". Had the word been listed under all the relevant sub-categories, or had a cross reference, it would save search time. I'll end with the author's resolution of adopting definition according to the sub-category in which the word is listed . Adoption would be a good practice if a term has numerous different meanings (e.g. "love" convey affection, but in tennis "love" means a zero score). Limiting the definition of "centerfold" (p. 584) to the porno sub-category:"photo of nude woman or man featured in magazine", the reader doesn't get a complete understanding of the term, one might think that "centerfold" relates only to the definition as stated in porno sub-category. This term is also listed under the category of journalism (p. 326) with a border definition:"foldout double page at center of magazine usually containing illustration sometime featuring nude photo", which would be a better choice also under the porno category.I'm using this book mainly to enrich my vocabulary, with the unique , uncommon and unfamiliar words that the book is rich with.And we have a winner ! Back around 1991, a brainy friend of mine showed me a book and said, "This is a thesaurus, a sort of backward thesaurus." And I said, "Oh." and flipped through it a little bit. I saw a term for clearing a field for crops by burning it and thought, "Hm. How would I ever remember that word?" Well, ever since then, every time I see any non-alphabetical thesauri that claim to be novel in format and complete in content, I promptly follow the steps and try to re-find that lost word.On and off, of course, this wasn't an obsession, but I would say I've tried around 10 different resources including any "backwards thesaurus" I see including McCutcheons "Descriptionary" which is a lot of fun anyway.For those wondering how this book works, it is basically lists of sublists, and sub-sublists to a final list of one or two hundred words that you scan a brief 10 word (or so) definition to see if it is what you need. For example, I see a foot rest in my mind, but can't remember the word "ottoman"... I'd go to the biggest chunk, "Domestic Life", and under that list find, "Home" and then to "Furnishings" and then to "Chairs and Sofas" and there would find many many words I scan one of which is ottoman. By the way, apparently, all of reality can be categorized in 7 big chunks : Nature, Science and Technology, Domestic Life, Institutions, Arts and Leisure, Language, and The Human Condition. So for my "foot rest" example, once you choose "Domestic Life" as your first 'chunk' you are only 3 hops away (Home, Furnishings, Chairs) and you are scanning for your word 'ottoman'.Only 2 small complaints: One is the possibility of blind alleys / dead ends that I'm sure all books of this type are subject to. For instance, I would probably have put the sub-list "Agriculture" under science and technology and not under economics. Not really a problem though since you can go to the back and find not only every word that's in the book, in the index, but all of the list headings. Boom! There's 'Agriculture' and I'm back on track.The only other complaint is that the "Brief Table of Contents" which comprise the 1st 2 'chunking' or 'drilling down steps' (Domestic Life and Home, in our example) is separated by 11 pages from the complete Table of Contents thereby separating the first two largest general category lists from the 2 finer more specific lists. You find yourself using multiple fingers to hold pages and flip back and forth trying different routes. Why separate them? What is on the intervening pages breaking up my flow? Oddly : the Acknowledgements, Staff and Consultants, The Preface, the Biography of the Author, and the User's Guide. These are minor irritations and in no way daunting. The only thing daunting about this book is the notion of compiling it.So here we are, 2007, and this book did what none other could do. Isolate the word I'd been looking for for so long. Is it fair to give a book a good review based on its ability to retrieve one word? Is this fair and scientific? Didn't I base this review well enough on the overall structure and efficiency of its format ? Was the "Random House Word Menu" that very book my friend handed me in ca. 1991? Should I reveal my secret word ? How about a hint? That's what the windsed to do. W-I-N-D-S-E-D. Do the anagram, or just get the "Word Menu".Good gift for my daughter who has just gone back into education at fifty. She did not get a good education at school, so this should help fill some gaps.Must have for all new writers!
