Dictionaries come in various media. Today I'll just talk about the paper variety. The best English-Chinese-English dictionary I have seen is the Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary, Second Edition from Oxford University Press. While concise, it has a good selection of definitions and it is easy to carry. It is available at regular bookstores. The base character type is simplified, but tradititional equivalents are included. The Chinese-English dictionary is orderd by character. If you only want one dictionary this is a good one to get. BTW, it is also available for Palm OS PDAs from Pleco.
An interesting English-Chinese-English dictionary is Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary. The dictionary is organized by root character components, which are not the same as radicals. The idea is to break down the components of the characters to show how they were formed. The genealogy is divided into 182 components. For each component it lists characters that use it, and then for each character there is a list of words that start with it. To look up a word, one goes to one of the indices at the back of the dictionary. There are English-Chinese, Chinese-English, radical and stroke-count indices. Emphasizing character genealogy, the characters are in the traditional form, although the simplified forms are given as well. If you have a special interest in character formation this is an excellent dictionary to get. It is inexpensive and easy to carry. It is available from Zhongwen.com, where you can also use it interactively for free.
