In many ways, my approach to this series resembled my comic book reading, where I’d skim over both battles and mystery clues to linger on the relationships and setting.īut having picked up the books again recently, I found myself much more involved in even these details – and as a teacher of writing, I began to analyze why. The novels span several decades, with the first published in 1934 (more on this in a minute), but the characters don’t seem to grow older, even though the world around them does marginally change.Īs I said above, I’m not a mystery fan, and what first attracted me to the books (aside from the fact that they were readily available in my parents’ home) was the atmosphere of the brownstone, the gourmet meals that were prepared daily for the unapologetically corpulent Wolfe, and Goodwin’s sardonic narration. Wolf is ably assisted by his legman, the noir mystery-lite Archie Goodwin, who also narrates the books. For anyone unfamiliar with the series, it centers on the mysteries solved by the vastly overweight genius detective Nero Wolfe, who rarely if ever leaves his Manhattan brownstone. An inveterate re-reader, I can ignore my overflowing TBR pile for days, weeks, even months at a time as I slip back into the comfort of ground already tramped and worlds already explored. And I tend toward series, because it feels natural to hop from the end of one to the beginning of another.
As a writer myself, when I’m immersed in my own writing projects, I gravitate toward books that it easy on my cerebrum. So the fact that Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series has been part of my “comfort reading” for many years now is in itself a mystery.īut let me first define what I mean by “comfort reading.” It’s a rare day that I’m not reading something, generally a novel, and I find it hard to fall asleep without a book in my hand. But I do have genres I avoid, including horror and mystery. Urn:oclc:842963061 Republisher_date 20130308185740 Republisher_operator Scandate 20130307195710 Scanner tell my writing students at The Writers Circle that I’m an eclectic reader, and it’s true.
OL137485W Page-progression lr Page_number_confidence 94.35 Pages 186 Ppi 650 Related-external-id urn:isbn:0553100823 Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 22:30:58 Boxid IA164103 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City Toronto Edition.
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