Customer Reviews:
 Very good December 1, 2008
PhilosopherKing (London)
My mother had a copy of Roget's when I was a schoolboy (many years ago) and I soon got used to its layout. As a consequence, I still prefer it.
The layout is rather unusual, however, and the following scheme is used:
1 Abstract Relations
2 Space
3 Time
4 Intellect: the exercise of the mind
5 Volition: the exercise of the will
6 Emotion, religion and morality
When I was at school, I sat ten subjects at 'O' level in 1976 - biology, chemistry, English language, English literature, geography, history, Latin, mathematics, physics and religious studies. I worked the hardest at chemistry, Latin, mathematics and physics. Probably as a way of forcing us to do some work, the teachers for subjects such as English, geography, history and religious studies set a very large number of essays to do at home and there was uproar if these weren't handed in on time - even though they didn't count towards anything. I soon became adept at churning out essays with the minimum amount of research and got used to using Roget's in order to look for appropriate words.
This is a good book if you are used to the layout but I admit that if I was buying a new Thesaurus (without having had any previous experience of using Roget's) I would probably opt for one that is better laid out.
 A labyrinth. June 12, 2007
Mike Anderson (Scandinavia)
3 out of 18 found this review helpful
This book follows all features of the makings of a good maze; you choose an entry and follow it. Then, you make a choice of what sub-route to follow. This procedure is repeated over and over again until you end up in a room that is a pool of hundreds of words, where you forget what led you here in the first place while you are drowning. This is not a tool, this deserves a whole subject of study itself.
 Invaluable for writing better English December 14, 2005
100wordreviewer (Kiev)
49 out of 51 found this review helpful
When my old Roget's wore out, I hesitated to buy another – aren't there free on-line services which do the same thing? Wrong. The Penguin Reference Roget's is infinitely superior to the on-line thesaurus services. By narrowing down the scope of the word you're looking for in the index (eg "tired" is subdivided into "inactive", "sleepy" or "fatigued") you rapidly reach exactly the synonyms or related words you're looking for. If you want to improve your English vocabulary and write with concision and style, the printed book remains unbeatable. It's also fun to browse, and makes a great gift.Conclusion: after 150 years, still a powerful writing tool.
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