Life is Short, Pray Hard: Forbidden Fruit II:: More Church Signs from Across America (Paperback)

by Mary Katherine Compton (Author), David Compton (Author) "People do odd things to get even..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
"Satan subtracts and divides," reads one church marquee. "God adds and multiplies." Mary and David Compton offer more than 400 such marquee messages in Life Is Short, Pray Hard: More Roadside Church Signs Across America. Many of these bite-sized sermons were sent in by readers of the Comptons' previous compilation, Forbidden Fruit Creates Many Jams. Some of the messages are cute, some are poignant (and a few, admittedly, are a little tedious). Taken together, they are a slice of Americana, a testimony to the endurance of folk religion in a multimedia age.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: NAL Trade (March 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451207831
• ISBN-13: 978-0451207838
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #373,069 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars WITTY AND CUTE. AMEN, April 4, 2003

By	Alan W. Petrucelli (THE ENTERTAINMENT REPORT (ALAN W. PETRUCELLI)) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Holy hosannas! Praise the word of the Lord ... and have a few hearty chuckles at the same time. Mary and David Compton's teeny tome is a sequel to their first compendium of roadsign church signs cross America. In this pocket-sized pal, they have gathered more sources of unexpected wisdom; witty, thought-provoking marquee messages that inspire and amuse. Consider it a most "soulful" slice of Americana. There are close to 400 messages. Our top 3 faves: "THOSE WHO THROW DIRT, LOSE GROUND;" "BODY PIERCING SAVED MY LIFE" and "LIFE IS MORE FUN IF YOU DON'T KEEP SCORE." Our biggest problem is that the Comptons don't attribute the messages ... which makes us pray that these phrases were actually found in their travels --- and are not acts of sales-inspired sin.

5.0 out of 5 stars Life has many choices--Eternity has two. Secularists have one.What's your's?, November 19, 2008

By	J. Guild (Toronto,Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is one of those little "gift books' you often find on special racks in your favorite bookstore.
Generally speaking, they are tiny and seemingly highly priced for their size;and generally in the 7$-$15 range. But then again, Greeting Cards are often in that range and these little gems are certainly a much better value for your buck.They make a good item to leave with or give to a friend, and carry a lot more thoughts than a card.

I find the "Product Details an interesting feature with books here on Amazon;so checked them out for this one.Under Text Stats we see it has only 2314 words and a very low Fog Index.A search on the net will give you details on how Fog Index is calculated;but generally speaking.it is a simple numerical method to calculate the difficulty in comprehension of written material.
This book comes in at 6.1 which is quite low. It is amazing how simple, astute ideas and truisms can be stated. That is the beauty of one-liners,proverbs,adages,axioms or however you choose to label them.
What we get in this little "tome" is a collection of thoughts collected from roadside church signs across America.They seem to be the modern day replacements of the Burma Shave signs of the past.
Here are a few of my favorites from the book.

"Atheism is a non-prophet organization."

"When you bury the hatchet,don't mark the grave."

"God is dead.-Nietzsche....Nietzsche is dead.- God"

"To make a mountain out of a molehill,just add dirt."

"Men do not fail,they give up trying."

"Holding a grudge is letting someone live rent-free in your head."

"You never have to explain something you haven't said."

"You can't direct the wind,but you can adjust your sails."

"Shadows fall behind you when you walk toward the light."

"Swallowing angry words is easier than eating them."

Some pretty powerful thoughts for such a tiny book ,and there's many more.