I wanted very much to read Gracián’s [b:El Criticón|709893|El Criticón|Baltasar Gracián|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1333589715s/709893.jpg|696161], but the only English translation is a dreadfully archaic one from the 17th century. So I decided on this small handbook of 300 paragraph-long aphorisms. Very soon, my disappointment turned to distaste as I found myself assaulted by an alternation between vapid one-liners -- in some cases, old clichés -- and cynical musings couched in the cheerful and self-indulgent language of virtue.

Each paragraph contained a string of one-sentence aphorisms that give the appearance of world-weary wisdom to mask their overgeneralization. Some were so astonishingly manipulative that I felt I were reading a handbook for sociopaths. I struggled through to the end, reading a few per day. Normally I read books of aphorisms slowly in order to savor each one. I read this book slowly because it was such a painful experience. Although I also picked up Gracián’s [b:A Pocket Mirror for Heroes|1344398|A Pocket Mirror for Heroes|Baltasar Gracián|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320412206s/1344398.jpg|1333998] at the library, I feel like cleansing my mind by reading something else before moving on to that one.