Horseradish

I will on occasion review a book on this site. I don’t do so often. There are people more qualified to write intelligent, fair reviews and I will leave that up to them. There is one book I plan to review, Pursuit of a Thirsty Fool by T. J. MacLeslie. The review is actually long overdue, but there’s quite a bit to ponder in this book and in fairness to its author and those who may choose to read (or not read) it based upon a review, I need to spend time going back over some points in there. Too many people write either glowing, over the top reviews or scathing, negative reviews then post them on Amazon. I don’t find either particularly helpful. I will say that I liked the book, and if you’d like more information about it you can click on the link.

Okay, I know I just said I don’t often do book reviews here, but sometimes I stumble across a book that I feel compelled to share with you. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and On Writing by Stephen King are two such books. I also just said I don’t find glowing, over the top reviews helpful, but come on–those books rock.

I found another such book yesterday whilst digging in the bargain books at the local Books-a-Million. It’s rare that I will buy a book without opening it and at least reading the first page, but as I tweeted from the bookstore yesterday, I bought this book because of the back cover:

There’s just something about devastatingly honest cynicism that makes me giddy. And how can you NOT buy a book by Lemony Snicket when it’s at the bargain basement price of $3.97?

The extent of my knowledge of this author comes second hand from my son, who devoured Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events books in elementary school. He glanced at the book cover and proceeded to inform me that he’s pretty sure the author suffers from depression. Alas, some of the most talented souls are tortured ones.

When we arrived home from the mall, I figured I’d read a few pages then set it on my nightstand. But to my delight, upon opening the book, I discovered it is a collection of quotes from its author. I’m a sucker for a good quote, and this book is chock full of them:

I can’t possibly share them all here, and I won’t even promise the few I’ll share are among the best, but if you love a good (albeit sometimes cynical) quote, I would highly recommend this book if you can find it.

Here’s just a few:

“An old cowboy song celebrates home on the range, where deer and antelope play, but anyone who has seen deer and antelope knows that when they are frolicking they scarcely look where they are flinging their hooves, which is why cowboys have been pummeled almost to extinction.”

“Perhaps if we saw what was ahead of us, and glimpsed the crimes, follies, and misfortunes that would befall us later on, we would all stay in our mother’s wombs, and then there would be nobody in the world but a great number of very fat, very irritated women.”

“It is not very polite to interrupt a person, of course, but sometimes if the person is very unpleasant you can hardly stop yourself.”

“In most cases, the best strategy for a job interview is to be fairly honest, because the worst thing that can happen is that you won’t get the job and will spend the rest of your life foraging for food in the wilderness and seeking shelter underneath a tree or the awning of a bowling alley that has gone out of business.”

“No matter who you are, no matter where you live, and no matter how many people are chasing you, what you don’t read is often as important as what you do read.”

“There are those who say that life is like a book, with chapters for each event in your life and a limited number of pages on which you can spend your time. But I prefer to think that a book is like a life, particularly a good one, which is well worth staying up all night to finish.”

“A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance, particularly if the library is very tall and the surrounding area has been flooded.”

“If writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then adhasdh asdglaseuyt[bn[pasdlgkhasdfasdf.”

“I’m sure you have heard it said that appearance does not matter so much, and that it is what’s on the inside that counts. This is, of course, utter nonsense, because if it were true then people who were good on the inside would never have to comb their hair or take a bath, and the whole world would smell even worse than it already does.”

“The way sadness works is one of the strangest riddles of the world.”

“Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby–awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess.”

“In love, as in life, one misheard word can be tremendously important. If you tell someone you love them, for instance, you must be absolutely certain that they have replied ‘I love you back’ and not ‘I love your back’ before continuing the conversation.”

“Having an aura of menace is like having a pet weasel, because you rarely meet someone who has one, and when you do it makes you want to hide under the coffee table.”

Okay, okay. I’ll stop now. I love me some good quotes!

What’s your favorite (or one of your favorite–it’s hard to choose just one) quote?