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jrmarr's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. Very disappointed in this book- did not like the author's style at all. I found it grating and condescending, too often sinking into what I assumed were 'wry' jokes but fell flat for me. The stated premise was that the book would consider the relevance of these proverbs today, yet this goal was only achieved part of the time. Could have done with a much tighter edit. Hopefully the rest of the series is not quite so disappointing.
charms1976's review against another edition
2.0
I constantly find myself wondering about certain phrases and how they originated. I remember my Grandmother always telling me things like "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" or "The darkest hour is before the dawn" and I never really understood what some of them meant at times. In this book, we get to learn about the origin and the many meanings a phrase or proverb.
While I liked the book, and the read is not fairly long, it still had me wondering about a few of them. Yes, it tries to explain what they mean, but some of them felt like a dictionary entry instead of simple terms. I think with Mother's Day coming up soon, this would be a great book to give as a gift. You could highlight the proverbs that your Mother would say as you went through life and leave little notes in the margin to remind her why she would say them to you.
I feel that this book would be best as a book left for gifts than a book that you would purchase and keep on your keeper shelf. I liked it, but I wouldn't go as far to say I would read it over and over again. It is more like a reference book that would hold more meaning as a gift with added insight written by yourself.
While I liked the book, and the read is not fairly long, it still had me wondering about a few of them. Yes, it tries to explain what they mean, but some of them felt like a dictionary entry instead of simple terms. I think with Mother's Day coming up soon, this would be a great book to give as a gift. You could highlight the proverbs that your Mother would say as you went through life and leave little notes in the margin to remind her why she would say them to you.
I feel that this book would be best as a book left for gifts than a book that you would purchase and keep on your keeper shelf. I liked it, but I wouldn't go as far to say I would read it over and over again. It is more like a reference book that would hold more meaning as a gift with added insight written by yourself.
clss97's review against another edition
2.0
Think I would have enjoyed this book if I had read it across a year (a proverb a day) but instead I read it over the period of a week which made it a little dry opposed to how wittily I believe it could be read. There were however some of my favourite proverbs explained with quite excellent quotes, which made me laugh out loud or question the entire nature of language - so I am definitely glad to have read it, if for no other reason than that my knowledge of proverbs has increased by the bucketful!
As they say - never judge a book by it's cover!
p.s - you'll love this book if you want lots of Hamlet references (which was actually great! #Shakespearefan)
As they say - never judge a book by it's cover!
p.s - you'll love this book if you want lots of Hamlet references (which was actually great! #Shakespearefan)
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