Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket

For more than twenty years, Lemony Snicket has led millions of young readers through a mysterious world of bewildering questions and unfortunate events. With this latest book—a love letter to readers young and old about the vagaries of real life—longtime fans and new readers alike will experience Snicket’s distinctive voice in a new way.

This true story—as true as Lemony Snicket himself—begins with a puzzling note under his door: You had poison for breakfast. Following a winding trail of clues to solve the mystery of his own demise, Snicket takes us on a thought-provoking tour of his predilections: the proper way to prepare an egg, a perplexing idea called “tzimtzum,” the sublime pleasure of swimming in open water, and much else.

This book reminded me why I love reading.

[a:Patrick Warburton 20146450 Patrick Warburton https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] was an excellent narrator. At one point where Warburton read a passage that had the word poison multiple times I couldn't help but think of Kronk in this scene:I love Lemony Snicket and appreciated the repetition of the breakfast: tea with honey, toast with cheese, a sliced pear, and an egg, perfectly prepared. I adored the conversation with the translator and the author and of course the reverence for librarians, libraries, and literature.At one point he says, “It is almost as if enormous philosophical questions are not designed to be answered at all, but just to make you think.” Which made me think of the concept of koans, and made me smile.I already knew that the stranger come to town and the hero setting out on a journey were different sides of the same tale, but I thought it was clever to put together the rules of being mysterious and leaving things out. It made sense and was clever. To test my memory, although I would enjoy reading or listening to this again, here is a summary:After finding a note "poison for breakfast" Snicket goes to investigates the tea shop, but they are closed (around the world). This is okay since he decides that he trusts the tea shop. Next he goes to his honey supplier, who points him to the ocean, the source of the water that he used to brew his tea. He swims in the ocean. Next he visits the goats (who produced his cheese), they seem fine, and then the bakery. I recall a discussion of low hanging fruit, which must be about the pear and he talks about the 'paradox' of the egg or the chicken coming first. He ends up at the library and then finds his answer.

If you like Snicket's signature humor - a word which here means “frequently defining things in a peculiar manner, black comedy, and oddly specific narration” - as well as meditating on life and death, this is a book for you.

I felt it meandered a bit, which is an odd complaint for such a short book, and my main issue is I'm not really sure who the intended audience is for the story itself. Kids who liked Snicket's other books may be drawn to it, but it's more introspection than plot which is normally not a selling point to kiddos, and it may seem too whimsical to some teens and adults. Still, I enjoyed it well enough and of course my favorite part was when he talked about how magical and wonderful libraries are. 3 perfectly prepared eggs out of 5.