Amazon.com (ISBN 0192800450, Paperback)

Some may search quotation compilations for wisdom or inspiration, but most crack these reference tomes looking for a laugh. Ned Sherrin has therefore done the world a favor by culling the witticisms and snide remarks from the vast quotation libraries, creating a volume completely dedicated to the funny remark. It's superbly browsable, but as the nearly 5,000 quotations are grouped by more than 100 themes, it's also a reference with practical applications. For a quip on consumerism, George Orwell comes through with, "Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket." Dean Martin opines about liquor: "You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Ronald Knox defines a baby as "a loud noise on one end and no sense of responsibility on the other," and for politics, Art Buchwald says of Richard Nixon, "I worship the quicksand he walks in." It's an irresistible dictionary. --Stephanie Gold