Today’s Post by Joe Farace
One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.—Carl Sagan
For those of you keeping score, the current count, as I write this, of my “Books Read in 2023” is 43. Some of you may think that’s not very many, while others will say “that’s a lot of books.” I kind of agree with the latter evaluation so let me explain:
Part of the reason for the increase in the number of books I’ve read recently is that lately I’ve had more “home time” while taking care of Mary as she recovers from surgery. (I wrote about her own reading habits in the last book club.) Regular reader know of my recent obsession with Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series of novels and these books seem to be relatively short in length. According to nerowolfe.com “As opposed to the typical 60,000 plus word count for the Wolfe novels, the novellas usually range between 20,000 and 25,000 words.” By comparison…
I mention Stephen King a lot on this blog, not because I’ve read a number of his books because I haven’t but I have read a few and admire him both as a writer and a human being. His book Carrie, for instance is 60,581 words long, while my favorite King book 11/22/1963 runs 272,350 words. As an aside, many of King’s newer books seem longer than his early works. The Running Man (1962) runs 65,812 words. This may have something to do King’s ease of writing with a computer compared to a typewriter but may also have something to do with a quote that has been attributed to Mark Twain: “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”
Books In Play
Mary is taking a break from reading Elin Hilderbrand and recently picked up a copy of American Mermaid by Julia Langbein. I’m looking forward to her take on this book. Me? I took a short break from Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels and read An American Gun Mystery (1933) by Ellery Queen.
Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1929 by cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee and is also the name of their main fictional character. Queen is a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve baffling murders. The author’s real names were Daniel Nathan and Emanuel Benjamin Lepofsky.
Tirvia: The 1975–1976 Ellery Queen television series featured the late Jim Hutton in the title role with David Wayne portraying his widowed father. The Nero Wolfe television series that aired for two seasons (2001–2002) on A&E stared Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe and Timothy Hutton —the son of Jim Hutton—as Archie Goodwin.
I just finished reading An American Gun Mystery and if I expected it to be similar to Rex Stout’s books, it wasn’t and feels more like an Agatha Christie novel. I’ve only read one Christie mystery novel but I also read I am impressed by Dannay and Bennington Lee’s use of language but miss the tart, slangy wise guy voice of Archie Goodwin that attracted me to the Nero Wolfe stories in the first place. It was
Reader Questions
I received an email from a reader asking if I would be creating any videos for Joe’s Book Club as I’ve done for my Movie Club on my YouTube Channel.
The answer is maybe. I was thinking abut doing an unboxing video for the box of thirteen Nero Wolfe novels I bought on eBay as an inaugural video, but as I mentioned at the top of this post I have been busy as a writer, photographer but also as a caregiver for Mary as she recovers from her recent surgery, I like the idea of making book videos and may give it a try in a month or so. When I launch a book series on my YouTube channel. all of you book club members will be the first to know.
And on a personal note: Last night (as I write this) I attended the first meeting of a local Sci-Fi Book Club that was sponsored by the Books Are Awesome book store in Parker, Colorado. I can’t remember when I’ve met a nicer, more articulate or intelligent group of people. If you live anywhere within a reasonable driving distance, please join us for the next meeting