Witty Comebacks compiled by Tim Glynne-Jones

I do posts here for all the books I read, but not all of the posts are equal. Some are mostly notifications, for Future Me, for the moments when I think "what was that book of random quotes I read a few years back? Was it as slight as I remember?"

Future Me, that book was Witty Comebacks, with a subtitle of "Great responses and sassy remarks." It was published by Arcturus's Sirius imprint in 2000, with a London address but a price in US dollars printed on the book. The introduction was credited to Tim Glynne-Jones as the compiler, though online bookstores list other names as editor.

I got it as a remainder a couple of years ago, but it wasn't expensive to begin with ($12.99), though it is a small thing (roughly six inches by five and just north of two hundred pages). The pages are nicely designed, with splashes of color - each chapter is a separate color, so I think the whole thing could be a two-color job in aggregate.

And, yes, it is a book of quotes. Thirteen thematic chapters, each one twenty pages or so, with one quote and supporting text on each page. The quotes are all in the zinger mode, as the title implies - these are all responses to questions, rude or honest or whatever. You've probably heard a lot of these quotes already, which is the nature of books like this: they're one of the ways culture reminds itself of the things it already knows.

It's pretty slight, but any book like this would be slight. It's not any slighter than any similar book, and it's a nice-looking, pleasant to read collection of exactly what it says it will be. Would that every book were that true to itself.