I came across a meme a while ago that reminded me of how Archie
Goodwin described Nero Wolfe’s reading habits:
"I divide the books Nero Wolfe reads into
four grades: A, B, C, and D. If, when he comes down to the office from the
plant rooms at six o'clock, he picks up his current book and opens to his place
before he rings for beer, and if his place was marked with a thin strip of
gold, five inches long and an inch wide, which was presented to him some years
ago by a grateful client, the book is an A. If he picks up the book before he
rings, but his place was marked with a piece of paper, it is a B. If he rings
and then picks up the book, and he had dog-eared a page to mark his place, it
is a C. If he waits until Fritz has brought the beer and he has poured to pick
up the book, and his place was dog-eared, it's a D. I haven't kept score, but I
would say that of the two hundred or so books he reads in a year not more than
five or six get an A." (Plot It Yourself)
I don’t recall whether Wolfe has ever not read
a category D book all the way to the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment