For obvious reasons, I never told you about my notebook, with a cover as green as mansions long ago, which I use as a commonplace book, a phrase which here means 'place where I have collected passages from some of the most important books I have read.

Sometimes, just saying that you hate something, and having someone agree with you, can make you feel better about a terrible situation.

Take it back, Ed. Take it all back.

But one type of book that practically no one likes to read is a book about the law. Books about the law are notorious for being very long, very dull, and very difficult to read. This is one reason many lawyers make heaps of money. The money is an incentive - the word "incentive" here means "an offered reward to persuade you to do something you don't want to do - to read long, dull, and difficult books.

Never, under any circumstances, let the Virginian wolfsnake near a typewriter.

It looked exhausting and pointless, two things that should be avoided at all costs

Klaus sighed, and opened a book, and as at so many other times when the middle Baudelaire child did not want to think about his circumstances, he began to read.