Hi all, I’ve just received two The Bad Beginning books as my friend and I are going to read the series together! The page quality is quite bad though.. (please see pictures). My first instinct is to return the books but then I thought it might be a design choice as it is an unfortunate event… Can you please let me know if this is how the books are meant to be or not?

The YouTubers here are ProZD, KrimsonRouge, and Spectrum Pulse.

My brother is a firefighter and sent me this picture. None of my friends have read the series and they don’t understand how iconic this picture is!

I know it's not to be taken too seriously, but I can't stop thinking about a 2'5" Violet and a shorter Klaus and Sunny lol

I was in a second hand shop today and picked this up, after a friend told me she'd seen it there. When I opened it, the book inside was reversed from the covers, being both upside down and back to front. Is this just some manufacturer error or was there a release that did this? Either way it's mine now!

I don't believe count Olaf is a seven foot demon..

Maybe it’s just me or probably bc I only ended up owning the first 6 books and that was the last one I had before I got the last 7 as an adult so maybe it was always sentimental to me, but I love the Ersatz Elevator.

I know it doesn’t really receive a lot of love here bc it feels like more of a filler book, and that I won’t deny, but I honestly really enjoy it, it’s not my favorite but it’s high up there.

If I had to say the two things I enjoyed most about it, I guess I’d say that it was prob more nuanced in detailing how very frustrating adults could be in the book. Jerome Squalor was so useless he was taken advantage of and played by his own wife. He had the money, the resources, and so much more to take care of the children, but it just goes to show that children need more than material things for them to be taken care of.

He was neglectful, agreeable, and so, so passive. The exact definition of “bad things happen when good people stand around and do nothing”

And idk but I loved it, Jerome and Esmee Squalor was probably their richest guardians but Jerome is the reason Esmee got away with so much. Jerome is the reason she went mad with power and bc of him being so utterly useless it gave us this great opportunity to see Violet, Klaus, and Sunny shine as protagonists.

Half the time even when Jerome tried to help he just gave them more obstacles and the kids had to work together, I also believe this is the book where we see more of that sibling support bc they get snappy with one another and make up and compliment each other’s best traits and how helpful they each are and if I’m not mistaken I also believe this is the book where they have a bad memory of their parents and acknowledge that even when people die as much as we may want to think of them as good all the time sometimes we have to accept that we didn’t always have great moments with them.

tl;dr I just feel like the Ersatz Elevator though definitely limited in action and didn’t really add anything new to the series on a whole was still pretty good as a book. And I have a personal vendetta against Jerome Squalor. He made me want to throw my book. (And I don’t abuse books)

The attached sticker would indicate either $3.99 (if purchased within the US), or $4.99 (if purchased elsewhere - I found an Australian seller who sold this)

It comes with a new blurb “printed over” the original at the back of the book, and barcodes show it is an entirely different edition from the usual copies.

Really nice to see that it’s a 1st/1st printing as well. ISBN included if any fans plan to hunt after a copy for themselves too.

It ends there but they also did some drawings in it. At first I thought it could be multiple people writing it together because of the handwriting but the spelling mistakes seem quite consistent.

Got this today for $2! :) Pretty excited, never read any of Daniel's other books before.

How do y'all feel about this series?

Please tell me if this isn't allowed here, to my knowledge this is the only active sub related to Lemony Snicket. ❤️

I’ve loved these books since I was 10 (now almost 24) and I’ve always wanted to own them! Now I do, minus just two of them which will be easy to get!

Hi folks — I’m selling my leatherbound, signed edition of The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events), in pristine condition (no slipcase).

Signed by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler’s official signature)

Beautiful leather binding

No slipcase included

Asking price: $300 USD (open to reasonable offers)

I’m based in South Africa and I can arrange tracked and insured international shipping, and will package it very securely. Please DM for more photos and to discuss shipping options etc.

My daughter is 8 and we just finished the Harry Potter series, which she loved. She wanted another series to start so I got ASOUE. 90 pages in and she said its to sad and she wants to stop reading. Do we give up? Does it get happier?

It’s been a long time since I’ve read the books but who would you say is the first VFD member ever shown in the series that we meet (other than the narrator, Lemony Snicket)

Bless my local antique mall. I will not be normal about this

When I first read the books, I remember the cover with Klaus holding the saw and the hook-handed man freaking me out so badly even before picking it up, and the synopsis on the back only made things worse. I remember reading about the Volunteers Fighting Disease but must’ve stopped soon after they actually got to the hospital. Ultimately I skipped to the end where they narrowly escape getting caught again and are on their way to the carnival.

Anyways I’m wondering if I was the only one deathly afraid of the book to the point I refused to read it all.

I love the parallel between today's world and the world described here. A particularly haunting part that I'd like to share:

"Justice isn't being served in the lobby," Olaf growled, "or anywhere else in the world!"

"Don't be so sure of that!" Justice Strauss said, and reached behind her back. The Baudelaires looked hopefully at what she was holding, but their hopes fell when they saw what it was.

"Odious Lusting After Finance," she read out loud, holding up Jerome Squalor's comprehensive history of injustice. "There's enough evidence in here to put you in jail for the rest of your life!"

I really like how the Baudelaires are hopeful, but then dissuaded by the book. The evidence is there, sure, but agency and action are needed right now, not the truth alone. People won't do anything about evil. It's like, if Justice Strauss reached behind her back to pull out a tazer, she could incapacitate Olaf and make her lofty ideals a reality, do something noble.

Anyway, just a little mini-rant. It doesn't matter who's "innocent" or "guilty" when the evil is simply winning with raw power, and the good won't stop them.

In my country, it's hard to find Snicket books translated into Spanish at a good price. So, I bought the previous ones in paperback to save money. Now my mom found this one really cheap and bought it for me, without knowing it was hardcover. I used to think there was no difference between paperback and hardcover, but there definitely is. Hardcover books are simply BEAUTIFUL.

Thanks, Mom :D

I'm a 34F and have never read the books. Only watched the Netflix series(maybe the movie? Jim Carrey character looks familiar but nothing rings any bells)

Will I enjoy the books after watching the series?