I've had a fondness for years -- decades, really -- for collections of interesting quotes. There are specialized collections, of course, in which the quotations all focus on a specific topic, and there are countless books of more general gems, usually organized in some loose framework of source or subject matter.

The Book of Deadly Irish Quotations Some Smart Fecker in the Pub is Always Blatherin' on About is another one, although it probably deserves praise simply for the length of the title -- which is almost longer than the book itself, coming in at fewer than 60 pages, most bearing a scant two to four quotations each.

It's cute, it slips fairly easily into a pocket, and it is all Irish (or Irish-American; there's a lot of John F. Kennedy in here). Topics range from Ageing and Ambition to Drama/Literature and Drinking to Love and Marriage to Work and Youth. Most subjects have only a few quotes under each heading; some have only one.

The book leans heavily on several key sources: Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Sinead Murphy, George Bernard Shaw and Marguerite Blessington show up quite often. There are also some wee illustrations with what could generously be described as punchlines to pad the pages even more.

You can't tell me the authors couldn't find TONS of Irish quotations to fill a much bigger book, if they'd tried. I don't think being comprehensive was their intention.

There are some well-known sayings in here and a couple of obscure ones. The Irish connection aside, the best reason to own this is as part of the larger Feckin' Collection set, to leave lying around until someone comments on the cute titles.