Finding Nemo’s Almanac
For many many years I have been a great fan of Nemo’s Almanac, and it seems to me that many of my readers might like to know about it too. It is an excellent diversion, and also makes a great present for bookish friends…. My erudite, literary, knowledgeable readers (yes I mean you) would make the ideal audience.
So I will try to describe the whole phenomenon.
Nemo has been going for 134 years. A small booklet of
quotations is produced each autumn, and participants have the best part of a
year to try to track them all down. They send in their answers by the beginning
of September – there are 72 quotes (divided up into 6 for each month) + one on the cover. The editor gives 10
points for each correct answer.
I believe there are prizes although that doesn’t seem to be
the point (and I’m not only saying that because I’ve never won one). It’s the
joy of the chase, tracking down a quotation, finding clues in the text, trying so hard to remember where you saw it before…
In a remarkable way, Nemo has changed, but not changed at
all: after more than 100 years, the internet burst onto the world. Someone
could simply Google all the answers, I suppose, though I don’t know if they would all
turn up. But the remarkable thing is – the competitors don’t. There was a general
agreement that that would be no fun at all, so the rules were agreed: you can
use online resources to check, but you can’t just Google. And we all say ‘righto’
and we go and try to find the quotes in other ways.
It is a big Nemo year for me: I was quite high up the list:
BUT more to the point – I fulfilled a lifelong ambition,
which was I became a guest setter. The December quotations for 2025 were produced
by me, as you can see here. When I was first doing Nemo, so very many years ago,
I would have been delighted to know that I had worked my way up the score list,
and that I could be a guest setter.
To give you a clue as to what it’s like, this is a picture
of SOME of the books I used in the search for the quotations a couple of years
ago…
If you like the sound of all this, then I strongly
recommend that you go over to the website
LITERARY QUIZ | NEMO'S ALMANAC
Where you can find out everything you need to know, such as how to order copies. The current editor, Ian Patterson, is a delight and will be very pleased to hear from you. Tell him I sent you….
Very interesting but even one of those tomes of reference looks daunting. I admire your persistence in searching out quotes.
ReplyDeleteBill, it's a fine thing to be doing when you should be doing something else!
DeleteThis took me back; my late father was a devotee of Nemo, though I don't know whether he ever made the list (or even sent in his answers). When clearing his house after his death, I found he had made a good start on the 2022 edition.
ReplyDeleteOh thank you for sharing that memory. I love to think of the small band of Nemo fans, unknown to each other, getting their enjoyment from it in their own way.
DeleteIn my experience, I hunt down a few quotes when it first arrives - then have another go over Christmas. Then there's usually a gap and then I think 'I'd better get on with this', then a flurry of activity just before the closing date...
That's 2025 sorted then! Congratulations on being selected as a setter and your impressive score. I do well if I can half those marks but, as you say, the marks are not really the point, it's the adventure.
ReplyDeleteOh great, hope you enjoy having a go. And you are so right, it is so very much the adventure. And the chance discoveries you make along the way.
DeleteOnce, a quote was one I had used on the blog a while before - so I proudly claimed to be my own source....
Thank you, Moira!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blog! Delighted to spread the word
DeleteI used to get the Almanac years ago and then returned to it recently, only to find that - for me at least - it had got much harder. I wasn't planning to get it this year, but if you have set some of the questions, well. it is more or less compulsory for me, isn't it? Chrissie
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely right - I was trying to remember if you and I had discussed it ever? I will expect you to get full marks for December at least...
DeleteI'm tempted to get my mum a copy for Christmas, though she doesn't have the reference materials she used to have before downsizing so she'd need a research assistant ... presumably Gli Amici, last year's winners, are a team not an individual.
ReplyDeleteSovay
Gli Amici are regular winners, and I have always assumed there are several of them!
DeleteAlthough it would be frowned on to simply Google the answers, it is OK to use internet resources to check something out - so if you were sure it was eg Keats, you could go online to a Keats resource to find it.