Nevada City, CA — Area man and burgeoning author Roy Riffle spent the entire weekend reading Irish writer James Joyce’s Ulysses on Broad Street in Nevada City. Mr. Riffle, who is writing his own version of Ulysses based on the people of Nevada County, stood on the corner of Pine and Broad streets late Friday night and read the entire novel out loud. Several people stopped and listened to him.
“I was walking with my Mom and I saw this guy reading a book and I thought it was really interesting,” said Reiko Paine of Nevada City. “So I stopped and asked him if his sweater was itchy and how he could keep reading like that over and over again without stopping. He didn’t answer me which made me mad and I started to tick. But then my mom said we had to go and get an ice cream. I like ice cream. I bet that man with the sweater liked ice cream.”
According to the Nevada City Police Department, Mr. Riffle spent the entire night reading the novel, even through an intense rain storm. He was outside for more than 18 hours.
“There’s no law against reading outside,” said a Nevada City police officer who wished to remain off the record. “I suppose we could have cited him for loitering, but this is Nevada City after all, and that’s how things happen here.”
It is unclear at the time of this writing what Mr. Riffle’s motivation was for reading the entire novel, however The Fazzler managed to reach him at home.
“I was planning on reading The Great Gatsby,” said Mr. Riffle during the telephone interview, “but that’s been done like a thousand times. Plus, I don’t like Fitzgerald. Too bourgeois. I like Joyce and how he’s in touch with people on the street. I’m planning on reading Finnegans Wake next, but I’ll probably read that in installments.”
