Why haven't YOU been reading Nero Wolfe?

I've been trying to make headway on my TBR piles, but it seems a lost cause. Until all sources of books dry up, I'm afraid I'm going to keep finding more that I want to read.

Long time NO POSTS on the Black Orchid.

All of my reading time has been devoted to school work for the last year. I have at least a year to go but when I get my degree I am plan to get a few titles I have not yet read and kick back and enjoy them.

My Wolfes are lying fallow to fade from mind so in time I can pick them up and enjoy afresh once ag'in.

#4 - Yeah, I'm about there too. I would pick one up and read it soon, but now I can't remember where I left off the last time I did that. Guess I could check the threads here to find out.

I confess I reread the oeuvre about once every 18 months. I just finished all the ones my dad and I own in early December. There is just something so comforting in visiting that other world -- though there are a few that I find tough to take (when Pete Drossos is killed in THE GOLDEN SPIDERS, for example). I saved THE DOORBELL RANG for now, so I can start the New Year on a delightful note.

The Wolfe books make a nice balance for my other "trash" reading: I just reread all the Matt Scudder books by Lawrence Block (great reads but a bit on the dark side, though I'd kill for a friend like The Butcher Boy) and all the Lucas Davenport books by John Sandford. I had read the Sandford books haphazardly throughout the years, but this time I wanted to read them all sequentially. It made a real difference, and I find that I like them much more this way.

I've been pretty disappointed in the "new" books I've gleaned from ER and my local library. Many of them were just too "blah" for words.

I just finished re-reading Fer-de-lance and am now beginning The League of Frightened men.

Wolfe has to be the best put-down artist in the world.

Speaking to the golf club salesman with delusions of superiority......

You know, Mr. Townsend, it is our good fortune that the exigencies of birth and training furnish all of us with opportunities for snobbery. My ignorance of this special nomenclature provided yours; your innocence of the elementary mental processes provides mine.

Fer-de-Lance, Page 29

Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful.

#7 - Excellent quote and observation, but I'm not sure Wolfe is the best, Shakespeare is right up there. :)

Re #7 and #8: both are wonderful, but the sad thing is that I believe that today both men's put downs are unintelligible to the masses. Sigh. But I do love "your innocence of the elementary mental processes. . ." line.

Winter seems to be my time to re-read Russian fiction and detective fiction, among other things, so I happen just to have re-read THREE WITNESSES, one of the three-novellas-in one book by Stout. It includes "The Next Witness," which features Wolfe a) in contempt of court and b) staying the night at Saul Panzer's. Charmingly, Saul tries to provide a good meal for Wolfe. The book also includes "Die Like a Dog," in which Archie brings home a Labrador, to which Wolfe gets attached. . . . .I agree about the put-downs: wonderful, but too sophisticated and dry for this era. I'm also struck by the extent to which Wolfe is an unyielding civil libertarian. He insists on such quaint things as search-warrants. Happy New Year, or, as Wolfe would say, "Pfui."

I've been reading for school, then I got married, moved, and have been visiting family. Hopefully, as I catalog our whole library, I'll get to read some more.

I must include another bit from Fer-de-lance.

Archie..............I hated to hear him (Wolfe) curse. It got on my nerves. The reason for that, he told me once, was that whereas in most cases cursing was merely a verbal explosion, with him it was a considered expression of a profound desire.

Sheesh!

Pg. 45 Green Door Edtn.

Been away for awhile-literally and figuratively. Started reading some David Baldacci, which I really love for the easy, quick read, and sometimes great suspense. I'm also listening to all fo the Raymond Chandler mysteries on my way to and from work.

I'm frustrated trying to find a single volume of Sout's "The League of Frightened Men" at various bookstores. It seems that it is only available in a set with "Fer-de-Lance" which I already own.

Got my A&E videos back from the daughter. My wife and I are thoroughly enjoying them once again. Gotta love Kari Matchett in all her various roles.

>13 saxhorn:

I read the entire series over the course of abut 16 months approximately two years ago. Also obtained the A&E videos and enjoyed them (Amen about Kari Matchett!).
I recall the The League of Frightened Men was hard for me to find as well. I have the Bantam Crime Line Book edition from 1992. Several of the books were purchased online through AbeBooks - I suggest you try them.

I've also been away, for far too long.

I discovered Nero Wolfe while shipboard in the Navy, in the early 70s. I don't know how many I read, but I was hooked while reading all I could find in the ship's library. Then I set them aside for over 3 decades, moving on to other things. During that time I have tried and tried and tried to get back into mystery/detective fiction, sampling so many recommendations, and they usually start out promising, but about a third of the way through I lose interest. The only mystery/detective authors I've cared to revisit over the past 30+ years were Hammett, Chandler, and Conan Doyle.

Just yesterday I picked up my first Nero Wolfe after all this time, and the magic is STILL there. It clicked. I was laughing out loud and applauding, happy to be back home on West 35th Street. It's wonderful. I won't ever stay away that long again.

Welcome back to the joy santiago! I find I need a visit to the brownstone several times a year at least, just to be happy.

I'm checking in again, just to register by complete delight and gratification with these books. I usually read 2-3 different books at a time, and pick up whatever title fits my mood. I usually demand variety. However, after reading Fer-de-lance, and then The League of Frightened Men, I've had such a good time that I'm itching to get into Some Buried Caeser and then The Golden Spiders (I have those two double-deckers that were recently published). The only other time I can remember reading two books back-2-back by the same author was in 2001 with Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, and that was because I was still coming down from a "high" I experienced while visiting the Dickens House on Doughty Street in London.

I wonder how long this will last?