Anyone notice this in the Lemony Snicket books?

[Kiba-kun]

I find the books very amusing except for one thing; they explain every freaking word! Am I the only one who noticed this? I can understand it's a childrens book ((pictures a dead give away)) but explaining the obvious is annoying. well i'm done with the rant.

btw for those who havn't read the 12th book, bring a mirror with you. part of the second chapter is writen backwords.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Its the style of the books. I think they are overall fairly interesting (not up there with the Narnia books) but still a good read. I'm up to the 8th book now. Although Count Olaf always escapes and wreaks his havoc. They are dark, sad books, but they do have some good humour and satire about society. I think book 3 is my favourite so far. Although I enjoyed having the Quagmire twins (triplets) on the scene for the last two books I've read.

[Puritan]

Actually, the author didn't originally write them to be children's books, he was in fact surprised at first when the books became as popular among children as they did. The whole style of the book is supposed to be a satire of Victorian era children's books, and the definitions are part of that. The overbearingly didactic personality of the author is supposed to be funny. If you look closely, you'll see that the author's word definitions are always correct but never the typical definition you would expect. I generally find the definitions amusing myself, but it's all in what amuses you.

[Lynx]

i enjoy the definitions, they make me laugh

[Sai]

yeah, i enjoy them alot. But i was trying to figure out if Kit was married and couldn't come to a conclusion. I also like the definitions.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

I didn't realise they weren't written for children originally. I just thought they were dark and morbid stories for kids (in the tradition of Roald Dahl but darker and no happy ending).
I didn't realise Lemony Snicket wasn't English either, because I just presumed with the content that he was.

[~BlueRose~]

It's one of his trademarks. True, it does get kind of annoying when he says common words that we know what they mean, but just skip that part, and go to the next sentence! lol! XD
I do have to say though, that the books are quite on the depressing dark side. But, I think Lemony Snicket is very very clever.

[Wave]

Yes I do find the defs anoying sometimes. But the books are fun anyway.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

I'm reading the 10th book - Slippery Slope one or something. 2 more after that and then the 13th one (final book) won't be released until who knows?

[Shao Feng-Li]

I'm reading the Slippery Slope right now. I love the books.

[Monkey J. Luffy]

They come out in october.

I like the definitions! If he hadn't said them I doubt I would know what Ersatz meant if I he didn't define them. I rhink you are kinda exxagarating it though. It could go 'stop means...' my good golly gosh my optimism is showing!

[Sweet Mercury]

[quote="Kiba-kun"]I find the books very amusing except for one thing]

Kurt Vonnegut does that a lot as well.

[The Last Bard]

I like the books very much. So far I have only read volumes 1-3, but I'm planning on picking up the rest sometime.
And I don't really mind how he explains some words. As many that he explains I would most likely just pass right over.

Did anyone else like the movie? I enjoyed it very much!

[Shadowchild]

I believed that the definitions were very helpful.
It teaches you new words, like in Language class.
But without the dictionary.
^-^

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Most of the words I know, because they are well known, but others it is good to have pointed out. What I don't go for is when Sunny says one word and Lemony Snicket just strings it out to a full sentence. It's not even clever, it's silly. Most of the time they don't even sound similar. But the book's are still good.

[blueraven]

I could do without the explainations. I've always been a fan of "bigger books" and with the rate I read books its a bit annoying to skip huge sections just because page X is reworded K amount of times on J amount of pages. The explainations make the books different but without them I'm pretty sure each book would only be a third as long. (Yes, I was one of the folks who complained that the Harry Potter books need to be BIGGER - keep us reading longer so we're all waiting in line for the next book *twitch*) ^_^;;; just my 2copper I'm the kind of person who hates having things explained to me but has a little hissy fight when people think I know what something means and I don't.

I liked the movie, we "test" movies to recommend which ones my little cousins should watch. While I was a little dissapointed in the movie after reading the books (rarely do you find a movie as good as the book) I still think it was done wonderfully.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

I saw the movie first and then read the books (corresponding loosely to them) and thought the movie was better in some ways and a little worse in others.

Blueraven, if the word description parts were left out there would be probably 5 pages less per book. You blow it out of proportion.

[blueraven]

Blueraven, if the word description parts were left out there would be probably 5 pages less per book. You blow it out of proportion.

Yes, I blow just about everything out of proportion but that is my opinion on the whole deal. I'm the sort that complains about the text size, I perfer it to be as small as possible so there are more words on the page. I'm the sort that complains about the location of numbers on the page, I perfer them to be on the top of the page where the name of the chapter/book is located to allow room for another line or two. I'm the sort that complains about word definitions even when they definitions build up the whole story. And I am the sort that complains about the number of pages, granted no matter how small or large the book is it doesn't make it any less good but I perfer to have my nose stuck in the same book for days.

I wasn't saying the books were no good, I was getting to the point that I'm the sort of reader that likes to have time to makes predictions (even if after so many books you can retty much tell its going to be very similar to all the rest). Going through a book in a matter of hours due to skipping sections, no matter how small they are bothers me.

Each author has their own writing style and I believe its not only a clever way to write but rather orginal to write a way that will get on many reader's nerves. We're still reading arn't we? We're still commenting on liking the books arn't we?

I try to joke and kid in my posts because I, in real life, am a very serious person even thought I wish I wasn't. I'm sorry if my post offened you in any way Warrior, blowing things out of proportion is a way to make a statement instead of listing facts and explaining everything like I have in this post.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

You didn't offend, I just thought you were being a bit odd (lol).
The books aren't meant to be all that long because they are written for children.

[Shao Feng-Li]

Most of the time they don't even sound similar. But the book's are still good.

Actually as the story progresses Sunny's words do sound like the definition Snicket gives them. In other words, she learns to talk.

[rocklobster]

Yeah, I actually find that the definitions bit works. In fact, it's increased my vocabulary.

[Aka-chan]

I like it; it's just part of his humor. I also like how sometimes Sunny uses real words or something close to a real (and very complicated word) and it gets translated as that word's definition.

*shrug* I've met Lemony Snicket, and it's just who he is--I love how his writing fits his personality.