Confession: I Love DK Guides

I believe I have a few myself (for the same reasons you state).

Ooh what are these? I don't think I know about them.

They have the best illustrations, especially of ancient cities and battlegrounds.

The publisher is Dorling Kindersley, mayqueen. I think gothicangel is referring to the Eyewitness Children's books (but I could be wrong. Those were the ones I thought of when I saw this thread).

I don't know about this series (sounds wonderful!), but when starting a new research project on any topic, I often go to the kids' section of the library to see what's there on the topic. This generally gives me a good base to go into further reading on. Sometimes, there's even a nod to (or the author is) a professional who's written adult books on the subject.

For those into historical war eras and battles, there's a marvelous series of books for model/figure painters on various uniforms and weapons called "Men At Arms" I've picked up only in modeling/gaming stores in the past (now they're available on Amazon and various other places). It covered ever major war (at least in Western History--I don't know if it covers any others now). Good reference material in unsuspecting places.

I loved those so much as a kid!!! I can see why they'd be helpful for research--pretty much everything has a visual, and their approach to history is from the perspective of concrete everyday stuff-- just what you want as a writer. I wish they went later than WWI, I'd so be into it.

I love them too. Used one while researching my medieval novel. It came with a great poster-sized castle. Right now I have 'Mesopotamia', helpful for researching my novel set in ancient Babylon. It also came with a poster that's hanging on my writing room wall.

DK also made a 600-page visual dictionary that's set up just like an Eyewitness book inside. It's pretty nice.

Donkey Kong runs a publisher? :O

DeleyanLee said:

For those into historical war eras and battles, there's a marvelous series of books for model/figure painters on various uniforms and weapons called "Men At Arms" I've picked up only in modeling/gaming stores in the past (now they're available on Amazon and various other places). It covered ever major war (at least in Western History--I don't know if it covers any others now). Good reference material in unsuspecting places.

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The Men at arms books are put out by Osprey publishing. They do a lot of great military history books. Pretty much every culture and period you could think of. And great illustrations too. In fact the illustrations are so popular that a lot of history forums forbid members from posting them. I think Osprey keeps a tight lid on their intellectual property.

Period art is a good place to pick up period detail too. Or if its more recent, period photographs.

JimmyB27 said:

Donkey Kong runs a publisher? :O

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I thought the same thing! Now I don't feel as bad.

I have the Eyewitness Viking book. The artifact photos are great. The reenactor's costumes not so much. The women's costumes are especially problematic, even for the time the book was written.

They're great visual resources, provided you also know what's correct in that time period.

ULTRAGOTHA said:

They're great visual resources, provided you also know what's correct in that time period.

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If you already know what's correct in that time period, what do you need a visual guide for?

Yes! I love them, grew up reading them. My dad is a military historian and he has a bunch of 'em on his bookshelf.

DK Eyewitness travel guides are handy too- good for brief historical and geographic overviews, with nicely done detailed "cross section" drawings of historical buildings and city streets.

JimmyB27 said:

If you already know what's correct in that time period, what do you need a visual guide for?

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Because it's great to have in front of you when writing description. For my last novel I used a picture to describe a room in a castle. From my research material I already knew what would be in that room but seeing a picture of someone occupying and using the room provided small details that gave authenticity to the description.