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I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like: A Comprehensive Compilation of History's Greatest Analogies, Metaphors, and Similes

I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like: A Comprehensive Compilation of History's Greatest Analogies, Metaphors, and Similes
Author: Mardy Grothe
Publisher: Collins
Category: Book

List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $10.17
You Save: $4.78 (32%)



Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars 20 reviews
Sales Rank: 2589

Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.2 x 5.8 x 1.2

ISBN: 0061358134
Dewey Decimal Number: 808
EAN: 9780061358135

Publication Date: August 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description

The murals in restaurants are on a par with the food in museums.

America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people.

Critics are like pigs at the pastry cart.

Describing something by relating it to another thing is the essence of metaphorical thought. It is one of the oldest activities of humankind—and one of the most impressive when done skillfully. Throughout history, many masters of metaphor have crafted observations that are so spectacular they have taken up a permanent residence in our minds.

In I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like, quotation maven Dr. Mardy Grothe fixes his attention on the three superstars of figurative language—analogies, metaphors, and similes. The result is an extraordinary compilation of nearly 2,000 feats of association that will entertain, educate, and occasionally inspire quotation lovers everywhere.

In this intellectual smorgasbord, the author of Oxymoronica and Viva la Repartee explains figurative language in a refreshingly down-to-earth way before taking readers on a tour of history's greatest word pictures. In chapters on wit, love, sex, stage and screen, insults, politics, sports, and more, you will find quotations from Aristotle and Maya Angelou to George Washington and Oprah Winfrey.




Customer Reviews:   Read 15 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars I love this and all of Dr. Mardy Grothe's clever books!   August 5, 2008
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

I love this one and ALL of Dr. Mardy Grothe's clever books!

His exhaustive research, his witty chapter introductions, and his delight in words and word play are all evident and a joy to read!

His other books include, "Never Let a Fool Kiss You, or a Kiss Fool You," "Oxymoronica," and "Viva la Repartee," and they are so much fun, you will chuckle as you read them. As a fellow fan of word play, I adore reading his books and I'm eagerly awaiting his next, entitled, "Ifferisms."

Sign up for his weekly newsletter for even more interesting literary information and a puzzler, which I love solving!

--Linnda Durre', Ph.D.
Author, psychotherapist, and columnist



5 out of 5 stars A National Treasure!   August 11, 2008
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

Mardy Grothe is a national treasure and so are his books. I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like lives up to Mardy Grothe's platinum standard of wit, wisdom and insight.

It is absolutely amazing that one man has such a comprehensive collections of quotes. It is even more amazing that he has them well-organized into topics. However, the presentation of each quote, painted into a context and story is nothing short of sheer delight.

I am a big fan of Mardy, his books and his "Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week" e-newsletter (drmardy.com). If it seems that I might be overstating and exaggerating, then I welcome the reader to purchase a copy in a failed attempt to prove me wrong!




5 out of 5 stars another of Mardy Grothe's joyful romps with tropes   August 17, 2008
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

With "i never metaphor i didn't like" [sic] Dr. Mardy Grothe once again succeeds in deriving both amusement and plenty of food-for-thought from the nuances of figures of speech-this time from metaphor, simile, and analogy. This is another of his books worthy of multiple browsings for examples of linguistic wit, wisdom, pathos, and bathos thoughtfully arranged by subject. Dr. Grothe intersperses the quotations with background information, anecdotes, and reference linkages that enhance the reader's enjoyment and make the book more than just a list of quotations. I've thoroughly perused all of his figure-of-speech books, and I'm sure this one will wind up as well thumbed as his others on my shelf.

His introduction provides a quick brush-up on the characteristics of analogies, metaphors, and similes that is bright and readable without being tedious. And his index by author will be appreciated by anyone seeking specific who-said-whats that are scattered among various topics.

Mardy triumphs again in showing the feedback loop by which our language influences our thoughts and our thoughts influence our language.



5 out of 5 stars Author, Metaphorically Selling   August 15, 2008
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

What a goldmine lovers of language will find in "I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like." My only regret is that I didn't think of this title for my book. In our current world of information overload, metaphors and analogies are a communicator's most powerful "weapon of mass communication" to make a point. Dr. Grothe's entertaining contribution is to show that this was always so. Read this book with a pen for the many entries you will want to remember and/or use. Anne Miller, www.annemiller.com


5 out of 5 stars What Makes Your Language Live   August 8, 2008
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like: A Comprehensive Compilation of History's Greatest Analogies, Metaphors, and Similes

Tired of political platitudes, a mundane media, and the dense jargon of appliance instructions? Want to read language that lives? Want to borrow colorful quotes for your amorous boudoir, your senior center, or your favorite bar for drinks mixed with insults? Then this is your book. You can sprinkle the sparkle of these quotations through any kind of conversation -- from sports to the theatre, and the realm that touches them both - marriage and the family. You can even double up that annoying individual with a habit of being funnier than you are. There's a chapter for every one of these subjects and aims. There's even one on life itself. The title of that chapter? "Life is the art of drawing without an eraser."

So far, you might conclude that this book is no more than an extremely witty and with-it version of "Bartlett's Quotations." You'd be wrong. This book doesn't just deliver quotations; it examines how they get quotable. The secret, says the author ("Dr. Mardy" to his fans), lies in the metaphor and its cousins (like the simile) that take the prosaic out of the prose.

Dr. Mardy is like a professional magician, passing his tricks on to his chosen successor. He shows what's behind the metaphor and how its stunts are performed. He shows you how best to enjoy the performance. And, when you write, he shows how to creatively wave a wand over words, to make a paying public or a world of family e-mails, your stage (to quote, more or less, one maker of metaphors).






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