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How to read SH for the first time
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When I read the original Holmes stories, I read them for the entertainment value. I wish that I had approached it from a more academic direction and taken notes. Off the top of my head, I think I would have written down the name and a description of the antagonist(s) and any other characters, the solution to the mystery and any mention of other cases.But, there is nothing wrong with just reading them out of sheer enjoyment.
Alex,While I have always been of the "read SH for enjoyment" camp, your post suggests to me that it might be very interesting to adapt your Google map to London and its environs, since Holmes and Watson always seem to be riding the train to somewhere. So many city/neighborhood names are mentioned, sometimes even in the titles (i.e., The Case of the Norwood Builder.")
Thanks Ken and Silvio for your comments and encouragement. I'm with you, reading is its own pleasure and I don't want to spoil it by taking an approach that is too analítical or academic. At the same time, I'm having such a great time reading SH - granted, I'm only a few pages into the first story - that I'd like to preserve the experience somehow. Almost like the way I keep notes re: great restaurants or good beers.
The map idea is a very interesting one; I'd love to see one so done. But as to reading, I just say go for it and enjoy the experience. BUT I have to say I have maintained scrapbooks/files for years on subject that interest me; the advent of computers and scanning greatly simplified this. Not as extensive as SH's but still the same kind of idea. He rubbed off on me.
Notes from the original Doyle texts would certainly come in handy when reading pastiches. There is occasionally some odd reference that I just plain don't remember.Another idea might be to timeline the cases. That may be more of an academic pursuit though. But, I think it has been done.
Notes being handy for pastiches: yes! I never was aware of Holmes pastiches until the BBC Sherlock show started; then I found it absolutely delightful to see how Mark Gatiss the writer (I think he was the writer) wove in details from the originals in amusing modern ways. Just a small detail: the fact that Gatiss' Holmes sends texts rather than the telegrams he is always firing off in the originals. If you did not know that, then the text-sending might just seem jarringly modern, when in fact, it is absolutely congruent to Holmes' character.
Silvio111 wrote: "Alex,While I have always been of the "read SH for enjoyment" camp, your post suggests to me that it might be very interesting to adapt your Google map to London and its environs, since Holmes and..."
Found this Google map of Holmes.. pretty good!
https://mapsengine.google.com/map/vie...
I'm about 1/2 way through the same collection. I'd just read it, its not hard reading though a dictionary may help on occasions (non American English and original meaning of some words). I decided to read it so I dont miss the blatant references in modern literature and media.
Dreb,That Google map engine of Holmes' London is AWESOME!!! Thanks!
Silvio111 wrote: "Dreb,That Google map engine of Holmes' London is AWESOME!!! Thanks!"
Very welcome.. Holmes forever!
All great ideas! I agree priority no.1 must be enjoyment. At this time I'm done with A Study In Scarlet, and I cannot help it but to compare it to the BBC's show. I was considering Evernote as the place to keep my notes, but now I think I'll write them directly on my copy of The Complete Sherlock Holmes; I believe this will add to its value, as a family heirloom.
Or, if not as a family heirloom, as something interesting for whoever buys it in later years at a yard sale:). Good idea actually.
Sort of an aside: In 1986 I was fortunate enough to visit the PR China at a time when that was very rare and spent a couple of weeks touring around with a guide furnished by the government. At the end, I wanted to give him something to enjoy and remember us by. I gave him my copy purchased for the trip (long airline flight) printed on tissue type paper in smallish type of the complete Sherlock Holmes by A.C. Doyle and told him it was one of my very favorite books of all time.
He Really seemed pleased to get it. I wonder sometimes if he still has it.
Since that was nearly 30 years ago, quite possibly he read it to his children and now they are reading it to their own!
I hope so. He was a nice fellow who wanted desperately to be more than was possible for him at the time. But it would be his child, with the one child policy so rigidly enforced in PRC.
I'm also reading The Men Who United The States, and while working my way through the book, I'm updating a customized Google map, with all the locations mentioned in the book. I'd like to do something like that, with SH, to enjoy this classic even more.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!