WRINKLIES WIT & WISDOM: Humorous Quotes About Getting On a Bit, compiled by Rosemarie Jarski (Prion, £9.99)

IF you're under 55, skip this. Over - buy the book. George Burns: "I don't eat health foods. At my age I need all the preservatives I can get." Hazel Weiss: "My husband has just retired. I married him for better or worse, but not for lunch." Lee Trevino to Tiger Woods: "I've got things in my refrigerator older than you." But did I give 55 as the cut-off? Steve Race: "When you are about 35-years-old, something terrible always happens to music."

LITTLE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS edited by Susan Ratcliffe (Oxford University Press, 9.99)

WITH his "If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself," uttered on his 100th birthday, songwriter Eubie Blake appears in this collection, as well as the Wrinklies. But though including quotes from such as Al Capone ("once in the racket, you're always in it"), Dean Martin ("You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on") and Bill Shankly ("Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I can assure them it is much more serious than that"), this Oxford volume generally ploughs a much more literary furrow. None the worse for that, especially since the quotes are conveniently presented under scores of heads, typified by (to take three in a row) Gardens, The Generation Gap, Genius.

SAMUEL JOHNSON'S INSULTS edited by Jack Lynch (Atlantic Books, £9.99)

OURS isn't the first age to feature public rudeness. In the 18th century abuse was an art form. In his Introduction to this collection of barbs by Samuel Johnson, Jack Lynch says: "Insolence and contempt were a favoured mode of discourse." Commenting on a lady's looks, Johnson once said: "Such a woman might be cut out of a cabbage." Lynch mixes such insults with words taken from Dr Johnson's dictionary, published 250 years ago. Here is a handful that might serve arguably today's No 1 insultor, Anne Robinson: Lackbrain, asshead, wantwit, clodpate, thickskull.

THE HAMSTER THAT LOVED PUCCINI by Simon Hoggart (Atlantic Books, £9.99)

CHRISTMAS round robin letters. Who loves 'em? Only the writers. Simon Hoggart follows up a best-selling selection with another treasure-trove of the smug, the boastful, and over-sharing ghastliness, not to mention bathos, for which the following, regarded by Hoggart as proving that "if life gives our writers lemons, they briskly get to work, making lemonade", probably takes the palm: "Let's get it over with. At the beginning of June our beloved Shaun, that gentle giant of a fellow, took his own life. He had been suffering from stress and depression..." Details follow, then: "Sad bit of the letter over, let's get on to happier times. For Nick's birthday treat I decided that we would have a day trip to Venice and have a romantic trip on a gondola."

Published: 11/04/2006