______________________________________________________________ 
( Well, anyway, I was reading this James Bond book, and right  )
( away I realized                                              )
( that like most books, it had too many words.  The plot was   )
( the same one that                                            )
( all James Bond books have: An evil person tries to blow up   )
( the world, but                                               )
( James Bond kills him and his henchmen and makes love to      )
( several attractive                                           )
( women.  There, that's it: 24 words.  But the guy who wrote   )
( the book took                                                )
( *thousands* of words to say it.                              )
(         Or consider "The Brothers Karamazov", by the famous  )
(         Russian alcoholic                                    )
( Fyodor Dostoyevsky.  It's about these two brothers who kill  )
( their father.                                                )
( Or maybe only one of them kills the father.  It's impossible )
( to tell because                                              )
( what they mostly do is talk for nearly a thousand pages.  If )
( all Russians talk                                            )
( as much as the Karamazovs did, I don't see how they found    )
( time to become a                                             )
( major world power.                                           )
(         I'm told that Dostoyevsky wrote "The Brothers        )
(         Karamazov" to raise                                  )
( the question of whether there is a God.  So why didn't he    )
( just come right                                              )
( out and say: "Is there a God? It sure beats the heck out of  )
( me."                                                         )
(         Other famous works could easily have been summarized )
(         in a few words:                                      )
(                                                              )
( * "Moby Dick" -- Don't mess around with large whales because )
( they symbolize                                               )
(   nature and will kill you.                                  )
( * "A Tale of Two Cities" -- French people are crazy.         )
(                 -- Dave Barry                                )
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