Welcome to my commonplace blog

The goal of this blog is to preserve a few ideas and quotes from books I read. In the old days when books were not so readily available, people kept "commonplace books" where they copied choice passages they wanted to be able to remember and perhaps reuse. The idea got picked up by V.F.D. and it's common knowledge that most of that organization's volunteers have kept commonplace books, and so have Laura and I.

I'm sure there are many other Internet sites and blogs dedicated to the same idea. But this one is mine. Feel free to look around and leave comments, but not spam.

20 December 2012

"Who Could That Be at This Hour?" (All the Wrong Questions) (Lemony Snicket)

I was expecting this to be a prequel to A Series of unfotunate events, but it's not, really. Instead, it's Daniel Handler's take on noir, driven by the perplexities of the interactions between children and adults, and styled on The Maltese Falcon. Once the initial shock is over, it's a fun book. Hoping for another successful series.


Quotes:

“Adults never tell children anything.” “Children never tell adults anything either,” I said. “The children of this world and the adults of this world are in entirely separate boats and only drift near each other when we need a ride from someone or when someone needs us to wash our hands.”

“I’m reminded of a book my father used to read me,” she said. “A bunch of elves and things get into a huge war over a piece of jewelry that everybody wants but nobody can wear.” “I never liked that kind of book,” I replied. “There’s always a wizard who’s very powerful but not very helpful.”

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