I’ve just now completed the 500th book since I began tracking my reading back in 2016. Of course, since I don’t really count comics and graphic novels towards my ‘Books Read’ total, I am not really asserting that I’ve read a spectacular half-chiliad of tomes, but just jotting this brief note in any case. (Comics are so short that I thought originally they’d skew the count; since then I’ve read plenty of short non-comic volumes, and a handful of lengthy graphic novels, so it all comes out in the wash, but … stet!) The “500th” book read—actually #440 in my ‘official’ count—is a strange pairing of old Ellery Queen mysteries, The Scarlet Letters joined in the same binding with The Glass Village. These books came out in the 80s as Signet tried to get people to buy old crime novels that might have seemed too short to readers grown used to reading fatter Ludlum-esqe thrillers purchased from the airport. Prolific authors of the past had their books packaged together to give them heft and (the publishers hoped) renewed sales. (These last two sentences are entirely unsupported by any facts I have at hand other than my own vague impressions; do no cite!)
The two novels are a mixed bag, with the first book being a disappointment to me, in spite of the high praise it received from Mike Grost on his extensive mystery site. In his review of Ellery Queen books, The Scarlet Letters is ranked fourth among the best of the pseudonymous author’s works. I found it cloying and maddening, as well as unbelievable and ponderous. The Glass Village, which is also well-liked by Mr. Grost, was a much better novel in my opinion, a very gripping story in the old American vein of the fight against the tyranny of the mob, quite pertinent to the 50s and—unfortunately—our own times. Maybe I’ll write a more detailed report on both books. Maybe.
For those keeping track, the book I finished reading just before this one was the Catechism of the Seven Sacraments, about which I wrote yesterday. That would make that ‘brick-illustrated’ religious book #499, though I’m counting it as a ‘Graphic Novel’ for my book counting purposes, meaning it doesn’t add to the ‘real’ count I use to determine when to mine my book data.
That’s all for now.
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