I could reread them every year and never get bored. On top of it all, the TV series is a pitch-perfect adaptation, and if you ask me about the movie I’ll look you right in the eye (but not actually) and ask what movie you’re talking about. These books are funny, exciting, dark, and teeming with clues and Easter eggs for those who care to look. I’m getting almost.dare I say… emotional, so I’m going to wrap this up.

I have Lemony Snicket to thank for a lot of things.Īnyway. But I have vivid memories of being a fairly small child and intensely poring over the pages of these books, looking for clues and ways to help the Baudelaires and, as this book says, “the people who liked them.” And I felt like I was doing something, even if it was fictional. Most stuff, when you’re a kid, makes you feel like anything you could do would be nothing more than a Viciously Futile Diversion. Lemony Snicket taught me the power of books, and of words. (Or maybe the last one is, depending on how many questions it answers.) None of these sneaky, behind the scenes things are a Visibly Forceful Development in the first book, so it’s not as fun.īut I loved this series so much in my childhood. This phenomenon becomes more and more clear as the series progresses, which is why the first book is the worst one.

Lemony Snicket creates this almost-reality wherein even the smallest, most mundane occurrence is Veritably Fixed & Deliberate.

So the things about these books.the setting is amazing. I can’t put it better than Lemony Snicket himself, so I’ll just shoehorn in his words: Within these pages, “the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, and cold porridge for breakfast.”

Second, we follow the Baudelaires - Violet, Klaus, and Sunny - through what can only be Very Foreseeably Described as a series of unfortunate events. What are you doing? There is nothing so important in your life that you can’t put it off in order to read this series. So, for the three misguided people who haven’t read this series - first off, get ON THAT. YES!!! The least fascinatingly detailed book in my favorite series! It just keeps getting better and better, folks.

The bad beginning by lemony snicket