c15d8e82-f196-4bc6-9f43-55bb4e21fe33I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I didn’t go in with high hopes (not to say they were low, but I cracked it with a pretty neutral expression); though, I did notice the “Tuttle” stamp, and heck, they publish a lot of gems. And that’s what  I found this to be. A gem. This one was a gift from my mom–she picked it up on the ferry as a birthday gift a few years back (don’t judge, I’ve got a large book backlog), which is part of the reason I didn’t expect much. Ferry giftshop literature.

When you read the synopsis and opening words, you get the feeling the book will be, literally, just a bunch of quotes. I figured the run-of-the-mill types; Thoreau and Dickens and such (it says right there on the front cover, “Old Chinese Tea Masters”, AJ). Once I started flipping through it I realized my mistake, because it’s definitely a cohesive work with sections and actual paragraphs. Continue reading