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Library Journal Review

Subtitled ``A Collection of More Than 16,000 Comparison Phrases from Ancient Times to the Present Compiled from Books, Folklore, Magazines, Newspapers, Plays, Politics, Stage, Screen, and Television and Arranged Under More Than 500 Thematic Categories,'' this work is an outgrowth of a personal collecting habit. It is similar to Ruth Paris and Robert Baldwin's The Book of Similes (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982) but much briefer. Attribution is to author (but not usually to individual work) or to such origins as American colloquialism, Chinese saying, or Anonymous. Brief comments often give the context of a simile. Coverage is idiosyncratic, with George Garrett and T. Coraghessan Boyle among the most quoted. Better suited for browsing, this is for exhaustive collections or where there is a need. William A. Donovan, Chicago P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Throughout this work, similes appear as fragmentary quotes by established writers, celebrities, and lesser-known persons (e.g., contributors to computer bulletin boards). Similes utilizes a loose interpretation of the figure that encompasses many comparative phrases such as "akin to" and "similar to" as well as the expected "like" and "as." An introductory table of thematic categories, with "see" and "see also" references, guides users to the simile entries. An author index includes listings under "Bible," "Colloquialisms," and "Proverbs." Some entries are made up of 30 or more attributed examples on a particular theme; "Love" has 78 examples, "Hatred" 17. Readers will be reminded of John Bartlett's Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (15th ed., 1980) and Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (rev. ed., 1981). Scholars can seek Frank J. Wilstach's Dictionary of Similes (1916). Writers, rhetoricians, lexicographers, and librarians in public and college libraries will consult this dictionary. -J. W. Galloway, Texas Woman's University