B.C. by Mastroianni and Hart for January 20, 2024

A man who won´t read has no advantage over a man who can´t read.

Does the book have any pictures in it?

I had a discussion with younger members of the family a few years ago on that subject, where I pointed out that the book “Do androids dream of electric sheep” by Philip K. Dick (Sounds of laughter from young ’uns) was better known to them as the film “Blade Runner”. (Looks of incredulity)….

In case anyone is wondering, books are those rectangular things made of paper.

If the cover has fallen off of the book, it’s probably pretty good, and gets read a lot.

Judge a book by its title.

Now that I think of it, I don’t recall seeing any of the characters in this strip sitting down reading a book. They just look at these reference books on top of rocks.

How about those e-books?

Doesn’t really apply to reading/not reading. The phrase is meant as a caution to assess a situation before taking action. Get to know a person before judging. Look before you leap. And dozens more.

If I remember correctly from elementary school (it has been around 30yrs!) “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is a proverb not an adage. I definitely remember learning about the differences between an adage/idiom/proverb but I’ve noticed these days most people seem to use the 3 interchangeably

I’m judging her “cover”.

Actually, it seems to me, that those who don’t read books would not say that, because they are, in fact, doing it! ☺

That’s why we have critics: to tell us what we do and do not like.

I’ve started reading again after a long hiatus. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed it.

Most voters cannot help but do this. Read the long history of facts … no way!

Case in point: Ulysses by James Joyce. It sounds like a Greek myth but is actually first class blarney.

What of Audiobooks?

…..primarily people that do not judge!!!!

We seem to have sired a generation of “transliterates”, people who learned to read but don’t.

Some books have a reasonable (to the book) cover, some book covers have nothing or almost nothing to do with the book.

Example, the main character has very dark hair, reiterrated multiple times in the book, but the cover has him with clearly light red hair. On the cover he and a blonde woman are running down a path in the woods. In the book he originally sees her as having black hair, but later realizes it’s actually very dark brown. The book does have them running from the bad guys once through a wooded area (I don’t think they are on a path, but it’s not specified, but I accept that because it helps the artist draw the picture so we can see better). This one was in the middle.

Another example: I read a hardback book with no picture on the cover. Enjoyed it so hunted up some of the author’s other books. In the library, they were paperbacks. The females on the covers were always in a state of deshabille. I’ve never sen ANYTHING about sex in any of that author’s stories – though ‘off screen’ a couple characters had been pregnant once upon a time. So why did the artist(s) draw book covers so far from the reality of the book?

So don’t judge a book by it’s cover, rather judge it by what’s between the covers.