JamesGeary.com
Geary’s Guide to the World’s Great Aphorists
Geary’s Guide is the result of a lifetime’s obsession with aphorisms and a year’s death-defying research in the British Library. More than 350 authors from around the world, some of whom appear here in English for the first time, are brought together in this lively and thought-provoking compendium.
Buy the U.S. hardback edition (Bloomsbury USA) at amazon.com»
And in the U.K. at amazon.co.uk»
Reviews
- “A wonderful breviary of wisdom, insight and cynicism, and one that will immediately find a place at many bedsides ... There are pleasures and surprises galore.” —Michael Dirda, Washington Post
- “One can hardly imagine the riches contained in this anthology.” — Jay Parini, The Chronicle of Higher Education
- “An agreeable thing to have in your lap.”
—Dwight Garner, New York Times Paper Cut - “Fun and indispensable ... All writers should own this book.” — Ken Wells, Portfolio
- A “wonderful collection.” — Rob Kyff in Mark Twain’s local newspaper The Hartford Courant
- “The virtue of Mr. Geary's guide isn't the familiar faces, but rather the legion of unknowns: Les Coleman (‘Glass is silent until broken’), Yahia Lababidi (‘Impulses we attempt to strangle only develop stronger muscles’), Antonio Porchia (‘He who makes a paradise of his bread makes a hell of his hunger’).” — Adam Begley, The New York Observer
- “A masterful compilation from a man adept at taking the pith.” — Ben Schott, author of Schott’s Original Miscellany, Schott’s Food & Drink Miscellany, Schott’s Sporting, Gaming, & Idling Miscellany and Schott’s Almanacs
- “Geary’s Guide to the World’s Great Aphorists is a rich, well-edited compendium, which is at once a feast, a frolic, a thought-kit and a treasure trove. A book to relish and to keep close.”
— John Lahr, The New Yorker - “A model of clarity, simplicity, humour, wisdom, unpretentiousness and almost fanatical diligence. The information is so richly distilled, the learning worn so lightly and the expression so elegant that you can open it anywhere and be instantly delighted.” — John Lloyd, British TV comedy producer of programs such as Not the Nine O'Clock News, Spitting Image, Blackadder and QI.
- A Way with Words
KPBS Radio, San Diego Oct. 23, 2007
Dangerous Books You Should Read
Grant Barrett explains why leafing through such books can be rewarding — but hazardous to your time management.
- “A fun book that is too quirky to serve as a reference.” — Library Journal
The Body Electric: An Anatomy Of The New Bionic Senses
“A fasc- inating account of a nascent revolu- tion.”
— Scotland on Sunday
“A remarkably fertile, imaginative read.”
— Focus
U.K. hardback edition (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) at amazon.co.uk »
U.K. paperback edition (Phoenix) at amazon.co.uk »
U.S. hardback edition (Rutgers University Press) at amazon.com »
The Body Electric in SPANISH can be ordered through the online bookstores Celesa.com, El Corte Ingles, Casa del Libro and Agapea.com.
Words for Refrigerator Doors
The 20th Anniversary Edition, 2007
Add this classic piece of juvenilia to your library today!
Comprises the complete texts of both Words for Refrigerator Doors (1985, 1987) and 17 Reasons Why (1988).
The Bay Area Reporter (April, 1986) said of Words for Refrigerator Doors: "Treats the tragedy of life with headline succinctness and a warm understanding which points up life's sweet ironies."
The 20th anniversary edition includes a couple of half-decent aphorisms, too. All for the amazingly low price of £5! You can buy the book from Lulu.com.
What Are You Optimistic about?
The 2007 Edge question was: What are you optimistic about? Why? Here are the answers, in book form.
Buy the American edition (Harper Perennial) at amazon.com
and the British edition (Simon & Schuster) at amazon.co.uk
©2008 James Geary
“Sometimes, two goldfish in a bowl are enough”
The New York Times Bestseller
The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism
The World in a Phrase is a whimsical, humorous tour through the history of this remarkable literary form and its extraordinary practitioners. The book chronicles the varied, often idiosyncratic backgrounds of the world’s key thinkers and shows, as eighteenth-century aphorist Vauvenargues puts it, just how much “the maxims of men reveal their hearts”.
U.S. paperback edition (Bloomsbury USA) at amazon.com »
The World in a Phrase in ITALIAN — la Vita in una Frase — is published on Oct. 22 and can be ordered through online bookstores BOL.it and IBS.it.
The World in a Phrase in SPANISH — El mundo en una frase — can be ordered through the online bookstores Celesa.com, El Corte Ingles , Casa del Libro and Agapea.com. Click for reviews from Artes y Letras, Cinco Dias, and La Vanguardia.
The World in a Phrase in Brazilian PORTUGUESE — O Mundo em uma Frase — can be ordered through the online bookstores Siciliano.com and Livraria Cultura. Click here for a review from Veja, Brazil’s leading newsweekly, and here for a review from the newspaper Folha de São Paulo.
The World in a Phrase in KOREAN can be ordered through the online bookstores Yes24, Kyobo Bookstore and Aladdin. Click for reviews from Sisa Journal, a monthly magazine, and from the daily newspaper Kyunghang.
The World in a Phrase in Britain is out of print, but was known as We Are What We Think: A Journey Through the Wisest and Wittiest Sayings in the World.
Reviews
“Geary fell in love with aphorisms when, at 8, his eye wandered to the Quotable Quotes section of Reader’s Digest ... His attraction turned into a lifetime obsession, which he indulges to the fullest in ‘The World in a Phrase’, his entertaining love letter to the compact form.”
— New York Times
“Geary serves up old favorites: Montaigne, La Rochefoucauld, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce. But he has also rustled up phrase-makers who are undeservedly forgotten.”
— Washington Post
“This is a real treasure house. I intend to raid it relentlessly.”
— John Humphrys
“It is impossible not to be swept along with Geary’s enthusiasm. He has illuminated some poignant observations of the significance of introspection.”
— The Times Literary Supplement
“What a pleasant, personal, thoughtful little book ... Geary’s account is full of wonderful aphorisms .... Delightful.”
— Booklist
“Probably the definitive work on aphorisms, a love letter-cum-memoir disguised as a reference book ... fellow fanatics will be delighted.”
— Publishers Weekly
“Might become a Christmas bestseller — another Eats, Shoots and Leaves perhaps?”
— The Bookseller
“Geary’s book is a short and enlightening introduction to this short and enlightening literary form.”
— The Charleston Post and Courier
“A delight ... offers extraordinary phrases that any lover of the prickly thought and the graceful sentence can savor.”
— New York Sun
Geary’s “enthusiasm for his subject shines through this delightful little book ... An insightful journey through the world of philosophy, offering up sayings from a captivating collection of prophets, thinkers and poets.”
— The Sunday Express
“Geary’s fascinating book takes us on a journey through the pithy sayings of some of the world’s most profound and amusing thinkers and wits, [providing] entertaining and informative commentary on figures ranging from Confucius to Dr. Seuss.”
— What’s On In London
“A fetching dictionary of quotations.”
— Scotland Sunday Herald
“Whimsical, humorous and a great book to leave beside the toilet.”
— The Daily Ireland