Lemony Snicket's work is filled with bitter truths, like: 'It is always cruel to laugh at people, of course, although sometimes if they are wear... read full description
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Nov 09, 2007
Sara
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This book is full of very short snippets of Snicket wonderfulness. It took me about 1 hour to read, and that was with me stopping to giggle and interrupt my friend (who was also reading) every 3 minutes to read aloud something.
Very funny, very insightful. I think anyone with a twisted sense of what is wonderful and terrible will enjoy this.
Very funny, very insightful. I think anyone with a twisted sense of what is wonderful and terrible will enjoy this.
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May 12, 2008
I just happened upon this quirky litle book in the store where I 'moonlight' on the weekends. There was one copy face-out on a display table with other books with titles like "7 Secrets of Success" or "6 Lessons on Life" ...
This one obviously stood out among the others, with its simply clean cover and of course, the interesting title. I picked it up to find out more.
It didn't take very long to read through the entire book. With chapters laid out on More...
This one obviously stood out among the others, with its simply clean cover and of course, the interesting title. I picked it up to find out more.
It didn't take very long to read through the entire book. With chapters laid out on More...
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Sep 07, 2007
Sondra Santos
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I just happened upon this quirky litle book in the store where I 'moonlight' on the weekends. There was one copy face-out on a display table with other books with titles like "7 Secrets of Success" or "6 Lessons on Life" ...
This one obviously stood out among the others, with its simply clean cover and of course, the interesting title. I picked it up to find out more.
It didn't take very long to read through the entire book. With chapters laid out on dif More...
This one obviously stood out among the others, with its simply clean cover and of course, the interesting title. I picked it up to find out more.
It didn't take very long to read through the entire book. With chapters laid out on dif More...
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Dec 11, 2011
Chloe
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Back in elementary school I had a huge love for the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, I would read these books over and over again and once I had read the whole series over and over again I finally pushed the books aside and moved onto bigger and better things. However, the other day when I was going through a pile of $1.00 books in an old book store I came across this book by Lemony Snicket, quickly a feeling of nostalgia came over me and I was forced to run to the clerk and purc
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Dec 11, 2011
Shannon
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Horseradish was recommended to me by my ten year old daughter. We came upon it in the juvenile non-fiction section of a branch library. (While I prefer the vast array of choices available at our downtown library, there's something to be said for a small library where you can wander through the stacks in minutes instead of hours.) My daughter finished the book the same night she got it and has been encouraging me to read it ever since.
I've not read all of Lemony Snicket books, but th More...
I've not read all of Lemony Snicket books, but th More...
Jan 14, 2011
Briana
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Read 95% of the book with a smile on my face. Snicket is rare, wonderful, and refreshing!!
Eight of my fave "truths you can't avoid":
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 one of life's bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives ju More...
Eight of my fave "truths you can't avoid":
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 one of life's bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives ju More...
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Aug 21, 2010
Chris
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How could I not give this a positive review with such obvious panders as:
Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.
and
A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.
Because even though those examples aren't what give Snicket's collection their depth,
One of the remarkable things about love is that, despite very irritat More...
Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.
and
A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.
Because even though those examples aren't what give Snicket's collection their depth,
One of the remarkable things about love is that, despite very irritat More...
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Aug 27, 2009
Kathryn
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I chose to read "Horseradish" in part because of the hilarious cover and in part because I've heard so many great things about Snicket (and loved his picture book,The Composer Is Dead) but his Series of Unfortunate Events has never really appealed to me. This is supposedly a "bouquet of alarming but inescapable truths [from Snicket's work:] along with selections from his unpublished papers and remarks he has made at dinner parties and anarchist riots, in order to remind the reade
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Aug 14, 2011
Erika
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O Lemony Snicket how I love you! He's like the Tim Burton of books! This book is a book of quotes-bitter truths you can't avoid! :) My two favorite quotes from this book-
"Everyone, at some point in their lives, wakes up in the middle of the night with the feeling that they are all alone in the world, and that nobody loves them now and that nobody will ever love them, and that they will never have a decent night's sleep again and will spend their lives wandering blearily around a l More...
"Everyone, at some point in their lives, wakes up in the middle of the night with the feeling that they are all alone in the world, and that nobody loves them now and that nobody will ever love them, and that they will never have a decent night's sleep again and will spend their lives wandering blearily around a l More...
Jan 11, 2008
Osho
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A little book of aphorisms, which I presume is intended either to be sincere but wry, or a parody of the little-book-of-pensees genre. Since the volume is attributed to Snicket, whose ouvre is extensive and whose voice is distinctive, it is regretable that the majority of these large-type entries are neither funny nor apt. Some simply read like bland, generic self-help aphorisms. I expect more from the man who introduced the word "cakesniffer" to my vocabulary.
May 15, 2010
Zoe
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The title, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid is only relevant to a short section at the start of the book, the small section at the start talks about a woman’s misled journey to the top of a mountain looking for a ‘wise man’. As soon as she’d gotten to the top she asked the ‘wise man’ of what life is really about, since she had done nothing with her life so far and neither had her husband. Although the hike took many months she had failed to find the ‘wise man’ since he actually known
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Jun 23, 2010
Leah
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This book is wonderful (or should I say terrible?) in typical Lemony Snicket fashion. Broken up into segments such as "School," "Literature," "Family," and "An Overall Feeling of Doom that One Cannot Ever Escape No Matter What One Does," Snicket offers short anecdotes meant to... what? Inspire? Depress? Amuse?
I suppose they do all three in turn.
This is the perfect book for fans of A Series of Unfortunate Events who are hankering f More...
I suppose they do all three in turn.
This is the perfect book for fans of A Series of Unfortunate Events who are hankering f More...
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Jul 25, 2008
Becky
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This book is hilarious! It has many random bits from the Series of Unfortunate events. I think this book would make a great book for the coffee table, because you could open it up and giggle at it without having to read a whole story. I just recently read the series of unfortunate events and it was fun to find quotes that I had read aloud to my roommate.
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Aug 11, 2011
Jessica
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Lemony Snicket has an offbeat, sometimes twisted view of the world, and it is definitely on display in this collection of truisms. "Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them." and "One of the world's tiresome questions is what object one would bring to a desert island, because people always answer 'a deck of cards" or 'Anna Karenina' when the obvious answer is 'a well-equipped boat and a crew to sail me off the island and back home where I can play all the card
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Apr 29, 2008
Alexis
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I so enjoy Snicket's style of writing, his doom and gloom with a twisted humor that always makes me laugh out loud! Straight from the back cover "Life is a turbulent journey, faught with confusion, heartbreak and inconvenience. This book will not help." This book contains a bouquet of alarming but inescapable truths....
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Oct 28, 2011
Simon
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I read this book in one day in two sittings. It's not nesisarrily difficault and the largest chunk of writing is the Introduction.
This book was good and I really approved of the way the author spoke because I had read some of the "Series of Unfortunate Events" (A series I really need to start over and actually complete) and recognized word usage and tricks.
The bitter truths I found not all to be actually bitter, and for the record, I love horseradish, it reminds me More...
This book was good and I really approved of the way the author spoke because I had read some of the "Series of Unfortunate Events" (A series I really need to start over and actually complete) and recognized word usage and tricks.
The bitter truths I found not all to be actually bitter, and for the record, I love horseradish, it reminds me More...
Jul 06, 2011
Maggie
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It's not what I'd call a book, per se (did I even use that correctly??) - more like an alarming collection of even more alarming quotes that literally made me laugh out loud.
"Taking one’s chances is like taking a bath, because sometimes you end up feeling comfortable and warm, and sometimes there is something terrible lurking around that you cannot see until it is too late and you can do nothing else but scream and cling to a plastic duck."
"Perhaps if we More...
"Taking one’s chances is like taking a bath, because sometimes you end up feeling comfortable and warm, and sometimes there is something terrible lurking around that you cannot see until it is too late and you can do nothing else but scream and cling to a plastic duck."
"Perhaps if we More...
Sep 09, 2011
Olivia
rated it:
I really enjoyed this book and am seriously considering buying a copy. It's nice to have a book of this nature around when one is feeling down. Lemony Snicket is a genius of epic proportions. Here are some of my favorite quotes:
"A long time ago, there was no such thing as school, and children spent their days learning a trade, a phrase which here means 'standing around doing tedious tasks under the instruction of a bossy adult.' In time, however, people realized that the children c More...
"A long time ago, there was no such thing as school, and children spent their days learning a trade, a phrase which here means 'standing around doing tedious tasks under the instruction of a bossy adult.' In time, however, people realized that the children c More...
Dec 30, 2010
Claire
rated it:
How can you not snicker at a book which tells you things like:
"It is always sad when someone leaves home, unless they are simply going around the corner and will return in a few minutes with ice-cream sandwiches."
"It is always sad when someone leaves home, unless they are simply going around the corner and will return in a few minutes with ice-cream sandwiches."
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Apr 26, 2008
Kerri
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: I keep going back and rereading pages of this book. Some of them are sweet and thought-provoking and others are just really funny.
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Feb 06, 2012
Victoria
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I normally don't like this kind of books and don't think it's worthwhile to read, but this was just perfect. I seriously doubt that I'll ever be able to rate this author's works with anything less than 5 stars. Every single "aphorism" in this (sadly) short book is written in such a brilliantly hilarious way that makes the saddest and bitterest truths of life not so sad and bitter and the routine moments one normally doesn't pay attention to every day are described in the most unexpecte
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Nov 03, 2009
Maria
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Great fun! This is a charming and depressing book of quotes about some of the bitter truths of life. Some of these quotes I recognized from his unfortunate series but others are twisted truths and gloomy observations of common expressions. Like, "There are some people who believe that home is where one hangs one's hat, but these people tend to live in closets and on little pegs."
I particularly liked the quotes about reading and libraries. For example: "A library is More...
I particularly liked the quotes about reading and libraries. For example: "A library is More...
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Jan 20, 2009
Heather
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I just have to laugh at Snicket's wierd sense of humor. It's a book of quotes, some fresh and some recognizable from his Series of Unfortunate Events books. It's the kind of book you'd keep in your bathroom for guests to read.
One of my favorite quotes: "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 whether I am right-hand More...
One of my favorite quotes: "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 whether I am right-hand More...
Aug 13, 2009
Jeff
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This book is packed with the wit and sadness of Lemony Snicket, with some wisdom peeking through the thick clouds of woe. It's a compilation of quotes from A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket, the Unauthorized Autobiography, and The Beatrice Letters, along with some that is fabled to be from his personal life. Whether or not that is true, I don't know. That being said, if you enjoyed all Lemony Snicket's other work, this is just a book of excerpts from them, but it's kind of fun to
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Jan 30, 2010
Jeff
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I was excited to discover this collection of quotes from Lemony Snicket. Unfortunately, taken out of the context of A Series of Unfortunate Events, they lose a lot of their humor and wit. Part of their charm in the books was how they were presented as tangents to the story to help the reader understand what is going on. The quotes are still funny on their own, but they are much better when used as outlandish metaphors for the plight of the Baudelaire orphans. Skip this book, and instead read (or
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Nov 20, 2008
Tiffany
rated it:
I laughed out load at a few of his quotes. I love his humor. :)
"Deciding on the right thing to do in a situation is a bit like deciding on the right thing to wear to a party. It is easy to decide on what is wrong to wear to a party, such as deep-sea diving equipment or a pair of large pillows, but deciding what is right is much trickier. The truth is that you can never be sure if you have decided on the right thing until the party is over, and by then it is too late to go back More...
"Deciding on the right thing to do in a situation is a bit like deciding on the right thing to wear to a party. It is easy to decide on what is wrong to wear to a party, such as deep-sea diving equipment or a pair of large pillows, but deciding what is right is much trickier. The truth is that you can never be sure if you have decided on the right thing until the party is over, and by then it is too late to go back More...
Mar 17, 2009
Miss Clark
rated it:
Hilarious for the most part, with many quotable passages. Anyone who enjoys Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is sure to enjoy.
Some of my favorites were:
In an emergency, one often learns that one's companions can be of even less help in extraordinary circumstances than they are during an average evening.
Stealing, of course, is a crime, and a very impolite thing to do. But like most impolite things, it is excusable under certain circumstances. Stealing is not More...
Some of my favorites were:
In an emergency, one often learns that one's companions can be of even less help in extraordinary circumstances than they are during an average evening.
Stealing, of course, is a crime, and a very impolite thing to do. But like most impolite things, it is excusable under certain circumstances. Stealing is not More...
May 06, 2011
Ryan
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jun 16, 2011
Becky
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This was my first Lemony Snicket book and it really made me want to read more. 'Horseradish' is divided into 13 different sections offering 'bitter truths you can't avoid.' I compiled a top ten list but my favorite one is, "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 nig
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May 21, 2011
Meg
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Just a collection of truths you can't avoid, like the title suggests. Some are simple and true:
Temper tantrums, however fun they may be to throw, rarely solve whatever problem is causing them.
Some are sad and true:
We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroo More...
Temper tantrums, however fun they may be to throw, rarely solve whatever problem is causing them.
Some are sad and true:
We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroo More...
