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Reader question: Please explain “black book” in this sentence: Don’t worry. He won’t be keeping a little black book on you. My comments: That means he holds no grudges. The little black book reminds me first and foremost Mao’s little red book, which is a pocket book of a collection of teachings of The Great Helmsman. That book was thus named because it had covers in bright red. Back in the day, being red meant a lot. But we’re not going to go over Mao’s works here. Both the man and his books have had their day, let’s put it that day. Here, we’re merely briefly touching upon judging a book by its cover – and in the case of red, yellow, white and blue books, apparently you can judge them by their cover without risking making grave mistakes. The yellow book, of course, is the thick telephone directory which lists people’s phone numbers. So-called because these books are yellow in cover. The white book, on the other hand, refers to an official document on a particular subject, which is also known as the white paper. A government white paper on pollution control, for example, seeks to find solutions to cleaning up the environment. The blue book is a list of government officials in Britain. In America, the blue book is a list of names of socially prominent people in general. For students, a blue book is a blank notebook, with, yes, blue covers “in which to write answers to examination questions”, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. In some circumstances, a blue book may also refer to a book of pornography. | 
