SwankiVY's Book Collection!

Reference
Alsenas, Linas Gay America: Struggle for Equality Gift from Sarah from the library discard pile. Definitely fits my interests!
Bain, Iain Celtic Knotwork This I found in my sister P's collection of random books. Thought I might take a look at it someday, if only for curiosity's sake.
Ballhatchet, Helen; Kaiser, Stefan Teach Yourself Japanese Little Japanese course I got.
Beam, Linda J. What NOT to Say! A nice little collection of misused and misunderstood words or phrases, giving the correct way to use them and examples of bad grammar/language. Awesome for language dorks like me.
Borcherding, David H. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Sourcebook Bought very early in my writing career (perhaps prematurely), it was a big help in understanding the market for my novels.
Bryson, Bill The Mother Tongue Bought used at Mojo: A book about the development of English.
Canfield, D. Lincoln Spanish-English Dictionary Left over from high school Spanish class. Cover's ripped off.
Casagrande, June Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies Had to get this one just based on the title! It's a book that discusses language use. Har.
Chapman, Robert L. American Slang Given by my parents when I graduated high school, has occasionally been of help in my writing.
Creative Works Roget's Thesaurus (Pocket size) Lovely tiny thesaurus I use occasionally in writing.
Cunningham, Philip J. Zakennayo!: The Real Japanese You Were Never Taught in School I thought this'd be funny, to learn some slang. This book is positively filthy, and delightful--though it's kind of outdated.
Decker, Julie Sondra Invisible Orientation, The Would you believe I own the book I wrote?
DiYanni, Robert; Hoy, Pat C., III The Scribner Handbook for Writers Given by my parents, one of the most useful books in both writing and editing that I've ever come across. Once it made me cry when it confirmed my belief that I was, in fact, using dashes correctly. I'm weird.
Galbraith, Judy The Gifted Kids Survival Guide (For Ages 11-18) Given to me when I was a child in the gifted program.
Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. Brownie Girl Scout Handbook I was a Brownie and a Junior, and was obsessed with the page about the uniforms and badges. I was very sad that Daisy Girl Scouts hadn't been around in my time, because I would never have the badges you could only get as a Daisy. Would you believe I never became a Cadette Girl Scout? Our leader sucked ass.
Hamilton, Edith Mythology I've never read this, but it seemed handy to have around, so I swiped it from sister L's book collection.
Hancock, Robert; Ashton, Elizabeth Earn Money Reading Books I fell for a "make money reading books!" ad and paid money to get what was advertised as a sort of "start up kit"; they didn't tell me it was just a book explaining to me how to get started in the freelancing industry. Well, many years down the road I pulled it out again and dug up the bits on how to make a query letter and whatnot, queried publishers, and now I'm a damn good freelance editor, too.
Houghton Mifflin Company The Essential Writer's Companion I got this copy because it was lying around my workplace and the place was closing down so we had to get rid of everything. Seemed up my alley.
Lewis, Karen B. & Henderson, Roxanne Sign Language Made Simple Inherited from Mikey.
Lissauer, Gabrielle The Tropes of Fantasy Fiction Bought because it's an interesting subject I have a vested interest in AND I know the author online.
Neff, Jack & Glenda; Prues, Don Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript Ordered through the book club, has been valuable for Jeaux and me as we doctored up our manuscripts and query letters to send to publishers.
Netzer, Corinne T. The Complete Book of Food Counts (Fourth Edition) Real cheap at the library book sale, I decided to get it for reference purposes.
Page, Susan The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book Mostly nonfiction-oriented, but this gives great info on how to make a proposal and actually sell yourself to an agent or publisher. The advice is very straightforward and valuable!
Panati, Charles Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Mommy gave me this.
Pool, Daniel What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew Ronni got me this for holiday 2010.
Rosenkrantz, Linda; Satran, Pamela Redmond Beyond Jennifer and Jason One of several baby name books I acquired in order to better name my book characters. I also love naming trends.
Rosenkrantz, Linda; Satran, Pamela Redmond Cool Names For Babies Ditto above; this one's got really cool names. (Duh, you say, since you read the title.)
Rosenkrantz, Linda; Satran, Pamela Redmond The Last Word on First Names Ditto above.
Schott, Ben Schott's Original Miscellany Wonderful pointless lists of trivia. I could not resist buying this.
Scott, Foresman & Company In All Our States In elementary school, we were given the chance to take home with us one discarded textbook. No one else seemed to find this exciting, but I did. I found this outdated book of America and loved the hell out of it, my favorite page being of the state flags. (I obsessively reproduced them all and made my own paper state flags when I was in maybe fifth grade.)
Schwarz, Edward A., Ezawa, Reiko Everyday Japanese Gift from Dieter, for learning Japanese.
Sears, William; Sears, Martha Baby Book, The I got this from Mikey because he found it in a box of books someone was throwing away, and he knows I like babies. ;) It's good research for the parts of my online comic that deal with raising babies.
Seidman, Michael The Complete Guide to Editing Your Fiction Mostly full of stuff I already know. But that wasn't a surprise. Ordered through our writers' book club.
Storm, Hiroko, Ph.D. Ultimate Japanese It's a book to teach basic and intermediate Japanese. I learned stuff from it.
Strunk, William Jr.; White, E.B. The Elements of Style, 3rd edition A good reference for any writer and editor--acquired at the library sale.
Strunk, William Jr.; White, E.B. The Elements of Style, illustrated A more up-to-date one I inherited from my manager's trip to a seminar--they always bring back free stuff for employees to claim willy-nilly.
Tatar, Maria The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales Gift from Stacy, nice book that explores the backgrounds and little-known facts about fairy tales.
Truss, Lynne Eats, Shoots & Leaves It's the famous book for editing geeks everywhere! I had to have my own copy.
Urdang, Laurence The New York Times Dictionary of Misunderstood, Misused & Mispronounced Words Had to have this one when I found it on our store's sale table. I love word trivia!
University of Chicago Press, The Chicago Manual of Style, The - 15th Edition Had a coupon at Borders and wanted to use it on something fairly expensive, so I went out and bought my editor's bible. :)
Webster Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary Given by my parents when I graduated high school, this well-worn dictionary has served me well. It is also full of paper dolls I made. I don't know why.
Winokur, Jon Advice to Writers Birthday gift from (if I'm not mistaken) Fred, just an inspirational quotes book where everything refers to writing.
Writer's Digest Books 2008 Writer's Market I got this as a 30th birthday present from Mikey.