What are the five essential ready reference resources?

You can’t go wrong with these books:

• World Book Encyclopedia – a 22 volume source which can help you answer anything from what are the dimensions of a horseshoe court? to what are the signs of the zodiac? Also has great biographies of famous people, country information and covers nearly every other subject you can think of.
  
  
• World Almanac and Book of Facts 2008 – a great one volume resource for questions like: How many $5 bills are in circulation? What are the all-time highest rated TV programs? How many Triple Crown winners have there been?
  
  
• American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language – not only the spelling and definitions of words, but also great usage notes like: When do you use a and when do you use an?
  
  
• Chases’ Calendar of Annual Events – Answers such questions as: Is Thanksgiving always on the last Thursday of November? Who was born on August 18th? Is anything celebrated on September 7th? Or even when do they add leap seconds?
  
  
• Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations – Who said what and where did they say it? For example, who said “Big Brother is watching you?” [George Orwell, 1984 pt I ch1]