"Education...has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading."

~ G. M. Trevelyan (1876 - 1962)  English Social History, 1942.

Elmore Leonard dead at 87 (Oct. 11, 1925 - Aug. 20, 2013)  American author, screen writer, known for his dark humour, gritty realism, strong dialogue.
"The old neighborhood has changed.  Hurley Brothers Funeral Home is now called Death 'n' Things."*

Well-known for his Ten Rules of Writing, Leonard said that "if it sounds like writing, I rewrite."  "I try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip."

*The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said by Robert Byrne, 1986, Simon & Schuster.

Photo:  Wikipedia

On Novels ~

"Lady Peabury was in the morning room reading a novel; early training gave a guilty spice to this recreation, for she had been brought up to believe that to read a novel before luncheon was one of the gravest sins it was possible for a gentlewoman to commit."

~ Evelyn Waugh (1903 - 1966) Arthur Ewelyn St. John Waugh, novelist, journalist ~ Work Suspended (1942), An Englishman's Home (1939)

Brad Smith with avid fan, June Bell of Cayuga

WATCH FOR FUTURE DATE of Brad Smith's visit to The Neat Little Bookshop.  SHOOT THE DOG, is the third in the popular Virgil Cain mystery series.  Fast, witty, beautifully crafted.   Folks in the country relate to Smith's characters ~ feels like home to us!  Congratulations, Brad, on what may just be your best book yet!

Brad Smith Signed Books for Avid Fans on the Weekend at Flyers Cafe.

"Down where the lilies blow..."

JOHN KENDRICK BANGS, American poet, satirist, editor (1862 - 1922). Worked for Life, Harpers & Puck.  Inspired by Carroll's Alice, he wrote Rollo in Emblemland.

To our readers:  We feel it necessary to explain that as Blogspot/Google offers more services, it seems that we have more problems.  If you notice incidental typos, spelling errors (ie. Lewis Carroll - we have now corrected.), it is because we are having to constantly trick Blogspot ~ going 'round 'n 'round in order to enter text or edit.  To enter text, we have to upload a photograph, remove, then type!  Once exited, good luck ~ cannot re-enter.  Our appeals to "Blogspot Help"  are less and less businesslike as the frustration grows.

THE LITTLE ELF

I MET a little Elf-man, once,
Down where the lilies blow.
I asked him why he was so small,
And why he didn't grow.

He slightly frowned, and with his eye
He looked me through and through.
"I'm quite as big for me," said he,
"As you are big for you!"

~ John Kendrick Bangs