As a person with aspirations of one day publishing a book rather than just drafting them, I spend about 60% of my time devising witty* dedications for the title pages of projects I have yet to finish.

Dedications are often slightly boring – ‘for [insert relative here]’ type messages, but occasionally they’re revealing, or hilarious, or heartbreaking.  An internet (and personal) favourite is from Jenny Lawson‘s excellent book Let’s Pretend This Never Happened:

JennyLawson

Alas, even with the drafts of 12 books on my hard drive and a further two in progress it’s unlikely I am ever going to have enough stuff published to warrant the number of dedications I’ve come up with, particularly given that many of them are for total strangers.  So I thought I’d post some here.

  • For that kid who practices riding a unicycle around the streets of Edinburgh like gravity is none of his concern. I salute you.
  • To peanut butter. You have always been there for me when the writing gets tough, and I treasure your friendship.
  • For the lady I saw rescuing worms off the cycle path in Holyrood Park one time. You are a hero, and I will do all I can to ensure you receive your reward in this life or the next (NB, I am not that influential so this might just be a cup of tea and a warm handshake).
  • To everyone who, on hearing the name Nostradamus, automatically adds ‘and his horse David Collins (ooh, he’s very flighty)’.
  • For ‘The Beer Lady’ who worked in Wm Low in the early 90s. I have no idea what my sister and I talked to you about, but our chats were the highlight of many shopping trips.

If you would like to read some absolutely excellent (not to mention published) dedications, see this post by Chrissy Stockton on Thought Catalog. I particularly enjoyed numbers 16 and 25.

Also, if you’ve got any spare dedication ideas or ones you’d like to see, whack them in the comments!

 

*May not actually be witty