Customer Reviews

Grooks

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Piet Hein, scientist and mathematician, is one of the remarkable minds of the twentieth century. His Grooks are among the wittiest, most unobvious, most thought-provoking, most pleasing epigrams anywhere. They take the form of short rhymes, usually good-humoured, always unpretentious, always rewarding. They are easy to read and always enjoyable. They are widely known, but I cannot understand why they are not universally known. They have given me and my family, and friends to whom we have shown them, great pleasure, and we are grateful and admiring.

The Grooks of Danish multitalent Piet Hein belong on everyone's bookshelf. And they deserve to be taken out and read in. And to be thought about

The amazing genius of Piet Hein is that his thoughts about life, about the small and the big things - but never unimportant things! - are short and at first sight simple, yet they say more than a Ph.D. thesis on Philosophy.

Therefore even the most illiterate will be happy about every single dime she or he spends on a Piet Hein book. Of course you get more for the money if you buy his collected Grooks.

- Grook$ -/ If thoughts profound/ Sold by the pound/ Your price would be/ Infinity.

I read (and owned) this whole series when they first came out, and got in the habit of buying extra copies to give deserving friends. Unfortunately I only still have the first three, due to the trials of moving :-(

It boggles my mind that they are no longer in print, as the wit and wisdom contained in these slender volumes belies the brevity of their format. I heard a rumor that they are going to go back into production sometime soon - if true I will probably buy a dozen of each for goft giving ;-)

You will probably recognize more than one of his "Grooks" (extremely short axiomatic poems accompanied by small humorous illustrations). Almost impossible to describe, just by it if you have a chance.

Piet Hein's grooks are unique and wonderful. Knowing and using them has greatly enriched my life. I have and know of 6 distinct grook books in english, along with various subsets published under other titles. Profoundly wise and witty, these rhyming aphorisms aptly observe many facets of life, often with delightful multilevel insight and playfulness. Each gruk is on it's own page with it's own revealing title and small illustrative sketch. Hein's Grooks are gems that grace and enliven reflective experience. They are unique and precious. This is unsentimental evaluation, not hyperbole. Despite his grook to 'shun advice at any price, that's what i'd call good advice', i heartily reccommend them to all humorous and reflective people. His Grooks aptly manifest his grook: 'Taking fun as simply fun, and earnestness in earnest, shows how thoroughly thou, none of the two discernest'. The books are hard to find. I have made a text file of many of the grooks.

Amazon's listing only shows one of the 5 books that I have in my collection. These are quick (5-10 lines) and easy reads that you can bounce back with friends and loved ones after tea.

I fell in love with Piet Hein's Grooks in 1969 and still recall many of them by heart. "I'd like to know / what this whole show / is all about / before it's out" is one of my favorites. His aphorisms published in Danish newspapers kept up the spirits of his countrymen during Hitler's invasion. His talents as an architect, city-planner, artist and designer are reflected in his works. They should be republished. He also developed a "super-egg" which was popular in the 60's in gift shops in Cambridge - an egg -shaped sculpture which defied the laws of physics by standing easily on one end.

I had read many a witty quote from Piet Hien a.k.a. Kumbel. I'm one of the lucky persons who can read his work in his own language but fortunately for the world this man thought himself english so everybody can now share his genious. Unfortunately english versions have become very hard to come by and this should be remedied because the wisdom found in his work is so profound and so easy understood that nobody should cheat themselves from getting a copy of it. This would be - in my humble opinion - the perfect gift - if you could just get a hold of it!

a collection of marvellous aphorisms and short poems spanning arts and science and maths- written with grace, wit and intelligence, and as valid and readable now as it was when first written. well worth reprinting, together with other books of piet hein.