A nerdish bookworm, Flynn is brilliant beyond compare. By the time he was 31 years old Flynn had obtained 22 academic degrees (12 Bachelors, 6 Masters, and 4 Ph.D.s), including four in Egyptology, a Ph.D. (or two) in comparative religions, and a Ph.D. in cryptology.
Practically addicted to learning, Flynn would have continued being a perpetual student had one of his professors not kicked him out of college, insisting that he get some real-world experience. Flynn applied for a job as a librarian in New York. Unexpectedly, he was successful in his job interview and was recruited into an ancient clandestine order of librarians who have protected a range of historical and often magical items (such as the Ark of the Covenant) for centuries.
Flynn is, effectively, a polymath, highly intelligent and resourceful. His years of study have made his powers of observation and deductive skills comparable with those of Sherlock Holmes. His ordinary skills (which did not qualify him for the job) include knowledge of the Dewey decimal system, the Library of Congress research paper orthodoxy, web searching, and the ability to set up an RSS feed. En route to his first mission, Flynn managed to decode the previously untranslated Language of the Birds in just over seven hours, a feat that no other Librarian (save one, who created the book) had been able to translate. Flynn rapidly evolves into a brave hero, not easily overwhelmed by the supernatural.
When Flynn was still quite young his father was shot by an unknown assailant. It took many years for Flynn to identify the murderer, and discover the reasons behind it. He took clarinet lessons when he was young, and when he was nine years old he attended a book signing of Stephen Hawking where he began to argue with Hawking about the correctness of the central thesis of the book.
His geeky bookishness is coupled with a razor-sharp wit that unfortunately has a habit of manifesting itself at the worst times. Flynn hates being corrected. He is a bit awkward meeting women, as well as too busy globe-trotting and fighting evil to maintain a relationship, and so his mother is constantly trying to set him up on dates.
Famous quotes containing the words list of the, list of, list, librarian and/or characters:
“Shea—they call him Scholar Jack—
Went down the list of the dead.
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yawl,
The bearded man and the lad in his teens,
Carpenters, coal-passers—all.”
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“I made a list of things I have
to remember and a list
of things I want to forget,
but I see they are the same list.”
—Linda Pastan (b. 1932)
“Weigh what loss your honor may sustain
If with too credent ear you list his songs,
Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
To his unmastered importunity.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“In early days, I tried not to give librarians any trouble, which was where I made my primary mistake. Librarians like to be given trouble; they exist for it, they are geared to it. For the location of a mislaid volume, an uncatalogued item, your good librarian has a ferret’s nose. Give her a scent and she jumps the leash, her eye bright with battle.”
—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)
“To marry a man out of pity is folly; and, if you think you are going to influence the kind of fellow who has “never had a chance, poor devil,” you are profoundly mistaken. One can only influence the strong characters in life, not the weak; and it is the height of vanity to suppose that you can make an honest man of anyone.”
—Margot Asquith (1864–1945)