OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Humor and Wisdom of the Aged" by Euclid Isbell.]

The Humor and Wisdom of the Aged is a short book that contains sayings in three different categories: Wisdom, Humor and Inspiration. The book only consists of around 120 pages, and the sayings are approximately 3 to 4 lines. The book can easily be read in one sitting or you could potentially read a proverb a day.

In the section entitled Wisdom, there are general quotes relating to life. One of my favorites is: "Diplomacy is letting someone else have your way." Humor obviously includes witty or fun adages. For example: "Thank you from the heart of my bottom." Inspiration is a bit different from Wisdom in that it contains sayings mostly related to Christianity and faith. Here, the author says: "God may hold us accountable not only for our words but for our silence."

This book would not be classified as self-help, but there is much truth to be gleaned from within the pages. I appreciated the variety contained in the book as I felt like there was something for everyone. I also enjoyed that some of the proverbs took a bit of thought to grasp. Several of them would be good food for thought for an entire day or even, perhaps, a group discussion.

The author has, I believe, somewhat limited the audience of this book with the emphasis on Christianity in the last section. That is not necessarily a bad thing. However, it is something to take note of if you are thinking of reading this collection. If you are an agnostic or atheist, this would probably not be a book you would enjoy. Similarly, there were a few sayings that were political in nature. These were few and far between; but, if you have strong political views, there is a chance you would not agree with the author.

Sadly, the book was not well edited, and, for a book of this length, that is an absolute necessity. The mistakes I found included typographical errors, missing or extra punctuation and formatting errors. There was usually a blank line between the sayings, but there were a few times where that was missing. This caused the axioms to run together, making it difficult to figure out where one ended and the next started. A good editor would greatly improve the quality of this book.

The Humor and Wisdom of the Aged gets a 3 out of 4 stars from me. It's a nice, short book of sayings that many would enjoy, but it could use more proofreading. I recommend it to those who enjoy a collection of short words of wisdom. I hope that, in the future, the author expands the collection a bit and retains a good editor. That would definitely shoot this one to the top of my must read list!

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The Humor and Wisdom of the Aged
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This seems like an interesting read, although it is not something that I would usually pick up. Thanks for the detailed review as always!

I'm a fan of wise, witty sayings, so I may enjoy reading this book. I also agree that the collection should be expanded. Thanks for the interesting review.

It sounds like such fun to have a book of modern proverbs. It’s a shame that it was not edited well, though.

Great review. ’Diplomacy is letting someone else have your way’ is a brilliant line, I love it. Such a pity it wasn’t edited properly. I agree that nowadays, politics and religion are tricky subjects, best avoided if possible.

gen_g wrote: ↑20 Jun 2018, 00:03 This seems like an interesting read, although it is not something that I would usually pick up. Thanks for the detailed review as always!

I appreciate your comments. It's not normally something I would gravitate towards either, but it was fun to read.

Nimat87 wrote: ↑20 Jun 2018, 04:51 I'm a fan of wise, witty sayings, so I may enjoy reading this book. I also agree that the collection should be expanded. Thanks for the interesting review.

Thanks for your comment. You very well might enjoy this one. If you decide to pick it up, let me know what you think.

Kendra M Parker wrote: ↑20 Jun 2018, 05:52 It sounds like such fun to have a book of modern proverbs. It’s a shame that it was not edited well, though.

It really is sad especially as it's such a small book. It's something that could so easily be taken care of. Thanks for stopping by.

Helen_Combe wrote: ↑20 Jun 2018, 05:52 Great review. ’Diplomacy is letting someone else have your way’ is a brilliant line, I love it. Such a pity it wasn’t edited properly. I agree that nowadays, politics and religion are tricky subjects, best avoided if possible.

I completely agree. Politics and religion are so divisive that I almost cringe whenever I see anything about them (especially politics for me.) Still, it was a good book. Thanks for your comments.

I think this is one I will enjoy. I like the three examples you quoted. I do hope the author made the proper citations, as I would suppose the "sayings" are most probably not original.

What is it with getting a good editor? Sometimes, just running the piece through "Word" or "Grammarly" will already clean up fairly well.

I would not mind about the religious aspect of the book because I like learning about people’s spiritual beliefs. However, I would mind about the political aspect of it. I do not like politics in books unless the books are historical or about politics per se. Thanks for the review!

Thanks for the insightful review. I was just wondering why the author talks of the aged in the title.

It sounds like such a wonderful read. Bad editing seems to be a common theme that I wish would be checked for more. Great review and let me just say, I love your profile photo.

Thanks for the review. I would definitely enjoy this book. This is another source of food for my soul.

I would love to dig in this book. It seems pretty interesting as described in review.