Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/01/03/sherlock-holmes-the-complete-2.html
…
7 Likes
By a weird BB/TwilightZone coincidence, I finished reading this about three days ago. [Strictly speaking, re-re-re-… …re-reading the stories, but the first time on Kindle.]
6 Likes
I had a bunch of Sherlock Holmes free on the Aldiko app, but when I changed phones they weren’t saved. This shall be mine!
4 Likes
Cool! If you are looking for a dead trees version, give the Castle hardcover a try. It isn’t as complete, but it is only $10 at Amazon and includes fair reproductions of the outstanding original Sidney Paget illustrations.
1 Like
It includes “The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes” ones? I thought they were still (ludicrously) under copyright in the US?
3 Likes
I used to have a multi-volume annotated (by Martin Gardner?) hardback edition. It didn’t make the cut when we made an international move many years ago. As I recall it had illustrations from The Strand magazine and possibly other early sources.
They were large books with fairly small print, and these days digital and audio editions work better for me. Thanks.
Actually, I’m in no rush to buy a Kindle so that I can read DRM copies of books that are in the public domain. Bad as copyright law currently is, at least in theory copyright eventually expires. The electronic locks imposed by the DMCA are forever so I refuse to encourage the Gresham’s Law migration to Amazon’s control of our literary heritage.
2 Likes
Calibre. Easy software for converting your ebooks into different formats. That this may possibly interfere with the DRM is totally not something I’m endorsing. 
6 Likes
I use Calibre to organize my library; unfortunately using it to crack DRM requires that you already be operating a system (Mac or MS) that I don’t have. Besides, I don’t want to support a system whose purpose I loathe.
2 Likes
So any suggestions for a non-fan for s good starting point? I tried as a kid but it didn’t take.
Actually I’d take a choice cut from Conan if there are cognoscenti about please.
1 Like
The usual advice is to read them in publication order. That would start with A Study in Scarlet. If starting with a novel-length work is too much, try the first collection of the serialized short stories, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. My personal favorite would be The Red Headed League… it’s just a fun story. If you like the concept but want to escape the canon, Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell series are a lot of fun, modern concepts but respectful of the canon and the timeline. Do read them in order, it does matter.
2 Likes
Contents page suggests that it only has the first two:
W. S. Baring-Gould? I have that one, and I like it a lot. I did find it a bit annoying that he re-ordered the stories into supposed chronological order, though it’s an obvious consequence of the straight-faced ‘Great Game’ approach.
1 Like
This has been available for free on Kindle for years (for as long as Kindle has existed, probably).
Another free Kindle mystery read that is essential, because it is literally the first full-length detective story in the English language, starting the entire genre – and, it’s a good read – is Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone (1868).
3 Likes
Just started a study in Scarlet. They are so young! He’s so ignorant! His scientific deductions are really not that amazing at all! It’s really interesting to see the original text and how different it is from how we see it now.
4 Likes
And full of 19thC Mormon creepiness! By coincidence I broke some stuff yesterday and am quite high on drugs so it’s interesting to see how cocaine and morphine use are alluded to on the first page or so of the first book and slapped right out on the table on the first page of the second. He takes a needle out and bangs himself up so Watson asks him is it cocaine or morphine. Already they seem to have aged 10 years or so. They seem mid 20s in the first book.
3 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
