The Book Or The Movie?

Here I'll diverge from my daily fair of writing about the prison to something a little more personal.

I do that on occasion. Don't be frightened.

Those of you who know me personally know about my personal penchant for mysteries. Of course, those of you who know me strictly through my blog have seen my Raymond Chandler moments. But those fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on your view) to spend any time with me in person have listened to me blather nonstop about Rex Stouts "Nero Wolfe" mysteries. I love reading the books and when A&E made 20 episodes into a television series, I devoured it like pancakes. As soon as it was available on DVD I bought my very own set.

In my opinion they couldn't have done a better job of casting the roles with Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe and Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin and a rotating cast of regulars including (just to name a few) Saul Rubinek, Bill Smitrovich, George Plimpton, James Tolkan and the inestimable Kari Matchett.

Look them up. Good people.

At any rate, a month or so ago I decided to re-read all of my Nero Wolfe books. At the present moment I have 28 of them, so it's taking me awhile, as I don't get a whole lot of time to read these days.

The problem that I am having is that the best stories are the ones that were made into teevee shows and when I am in the midst of one of those, I want to put the book aside to watch the show. Then, of course, the book is no longer as interesting, because I now remember how it ends. So I move on to the next one.

At the present moment I am reading "Prisoners Base" and the DVD's are sitting in a box at my elbow even now.

The temptation to put in the disk and watch it is severe, but I am persevering with the printed page.

For the moment, the battle continues.