Curmudgeons and Other Geniuses

The Portable Curmudgeon, The Portable Curmudgeon Redux, and A Curmudgeon’s Garden of Love, Compiled and Edited by Jon Winokur.

These three little books gather together the crankiest, most grouchy, and most stingingly witty remarks ever made about everything. Winokur makes a distinction between the cynic and the curmudgeon, in that the curmudgeon actually cares about the genuine emotions behind the pretensions he is pricking. A collection of quirky quotations what make you laugh and think, dunnit? Last two volumes illustrated with caricatures by Everett Peck.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Quotations. Humor. Hardback.

The Rich Are Different, Compiled and Edited by John Winokur

A compilation of quotes by and about the rich and their lifestyle, by the Curmudgeon himself. “This book did not begin as an exercise in rich-bashing. Nor was it intended to be a cornucopia of wretched excess. It just turned out that way.”

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code. Quotations. Hardback.

Binky’s Guide to Love, by Matt Groening.

Teeny tiny little eye-strain-o-vision volume of wry examinations on love by the writer of “Life in Hell”. Perhaps his last humorous belch before he was consumed by the money-lined maw of the industry.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Cartoons. Hardback.

The Age of Shakespeare, by Francoise Larocque.

An Abrams Discoveries book, small but hefty and full of glossy reproductions of art connected with that era of English history. Has not only a precis by Larocque but also contains a short scrapbook of what has been said of Shakespeare by the famous and influential through the years. Beautiful and informative.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: History. Literature. Art. Softcover.

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance, by Alessandro Vezzosi.

An Abrams Discoveries book, small but hefty and full of glossy reproductions of art connected with the Renaissance. Has not only a precis by Vezzosi but also contains a short scrapbook of what has been said of da Vinci by the famous and influential through the years. Beautiful and informative. (Sound familiar?)

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Art. History. Biography. Softcover.