WORDS AND IMAGES : Rhetorical Quest : Celebrate the season of questionable assertions with a collection of gaffes and zingers from our elected leaders.

The memorable gaffes or elegant phrases along with hilarious or hysterical sound bites uttered by candidates on the campaign trail or during debates are at this moment being recorded for the next round of proliferating quotation books. Hundreds of books about words and language are published each year despite statistics indicating that reading and literacy are declining. If any of you are political junkies (as I am), you’ll love “The Wit and Wisdom of Politics,” compiled by former U. S. Rep. Chuck Henning from Colorado. The book contains 3,000 quotes from the Greeks to the 1992 elections.

For example, Texas Gov. Ann Richards, on consultants: “For a mere half-million dollars, they’ll advise you not to drool on television.”

And former First Lady Pat Nixon: “I have sacrificed everything in my life that I consider precious in order to advance the political career of my husband.” Harry Truman: “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” And Ronald Reagan: “I’m not smart enough to lie.”

Great quotes are a boon to writers. So consider adding the following to your reference library: the new Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Quotations, which includes more than 4,000 historical and contemporary quotes from Shakespeare to Woody Allen; Jon Winokur’s “True Confessions,” about the famous and infamous, in their own words; “The Quotable Woman,” and the Complete Book of Bible Quotations.

And think on this from Plato’s “The Republic”: “Whenever we find one who has come unscathed through every test in childhood, youth and manhood we shall set him as a ruler to watch over the commonwealth.”

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Thousands of used books will be on sale from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Newbury Park Branch Library, 2331 Borchard Road.

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The Beyond Writing and Into Selling seminar, conducted by former literary agent Mel Bloom for Ventura College, will be held from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at Anacapa Middle School. The fee is $35. Register by calling 654-6459.

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Ventura resident Iva Grant recommends an all-day conference, “How to Find Facts About Anyone or Anything,” Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Holiday Inn, 530 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica. Sponsored by Independent Writers of Southern California and a committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. the conference fee is $100 and includes lunch. Call (310) 558-4090 for details.

And I recommend the Fiction Writer’s Research Handbook by UCLA librarian Mona McCormick. It is an essential guide on how to locate information on costumes, food, locales, events, weather, manners and anything else the novelist might need to depict authentic settings from ancient times to the present.