26 May 2012

Review: Horseradish - Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid by Lemony Snicket

This little book is a collection of quotes, phrases and stories divided up into categories, and as the title suggest, some are bitter truths tinged with humour whilst others are steeped in simple wisdom.

For those that don't know, Lemony Snicket is a pen name and some will have heard it associated with A Series of Unfortunate Events, a children's series narrated and penned by Lemony Snicket.

This book, Horseradish - Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid is a collection of short writings, each confined to a single page and each amusing whilst delivering advice or imparting wisdom at the same time.

I've chosen two of my favourite excerpts to share for the purposes of this review, to give you just a taste of the content, after which I'm sure you'll want to discover the rest for yourself.

"Deciding whether or not to trust a person is like deciding whether or not to climb a tree, because you might get a wonderful view from the highest branch, or you might simply get covered in sap, and for this reason many people choose to spend their time alone and indoors, where it is harder to get a splinter."  Page 84, Chapter 7, TRAVEL

"If an optimist had his left arm chewed off by an alligator, he might say, in a pleasant and hopeful voice, "Well, this isn't too bad. I don't have my left arm anymore, but at least nobody will ever ask me if I am right-handed or left-handed," but most of us would say something more along the lines of "Aaaaah! My arm! My arm!"   Page 92, Chapter 8 EMOTIONAL HEALTH

I really enjoyed making my way through Lemony Snicket's pages, laughing and pausing to reflect along the way. Highly recommended for all ages, and best enjoyed with others.

My rating = *****

Carpe Librum!

Would you like to comment?

  1. Excellent, Trace, this is going on my list for Hatro's birthday!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh cool! Hope he enjoys it, I'm sure you'll all share many laughs together. Let me know what he thinks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for your comment Steph and I'm so glad you enjoyed the review. This was my first introduction to Lemony Snicket too and if you enjoyed this, you'll love the book.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comment, Carpe Librum!