Question: Does anyone mind if I transfer my Sherlock Holmes journal here?

[Trollheart]

I only ask because I've put - and am putting - a lot of work into it and I get the feeling it's being missed, mixed in with my other journals. I think some of you might really enjoy reading it, and as this is the literature sub-forum I just wonder if it would be more appropriate to post it here? I know that technically as a co-founder I can do this if I want, but I don't want it to seem like the rules don't apply to me, so I'm asking.

If the response is positive (or frankly, if I get no replies) I'll go ahead and move it so if anyone has any major objections please let me know as soon as you can. I also have one on Dickens I think might be better hosted here too. All opinions welcome. Thanks.

[Guybrush]

Do it! It's on topic after all.

.. If you can call Sir Arthur Conan Doyle literature.

[Trollheart]

OOh! That's a burn! Not a fan, then?

[Guybrush]

OOh! That's a burn! Not a fan, then?

Yes, I am 😄 just couldn't resist.

I read the complete Sherlock Holmes once. It's a long time ago, though. Not this decade and not the previous either.

[Trollheart]

Ah I see. Then maybe my journal will bring back memories for you. Hopefully. How about Dickens?

[Guybrush]

Ah I see. Then maybe my journal will bring back memories for you. Hopefully. How about Dickens?

I think I've only read A Tale of Two Cities, if that's the one with the guy cooped up in jail for years and his daughter or something wants to free him.

[Trollheart]

No I think you're thinking of Little Dorrit? A Tale of Two Cities is set during the French Revolution, one of his very best. I would also recommend highly David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickelby, Bleak House, Oliver Twist and of course you know A Christmas Carol.

[Guybrush]

It is A Tale of Two Cities 🙂

"The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie whom he had never met."

I think there's a trial if I remember correctly.

I know of the books you mention and I do think one should read some of the classics, or at least attempt them. I don't always care too much for them.

I never finished War & Peace. It was just introducing a bunch of characters at first and I couldn't see a discernable plot.

I also bailed on Moby Dick. Melville is such a slow writer. Yes yes, he shares a bed with a black man. Get on with it!

I even tried Don Quixote, but only for a little while.

My biggest disappointment with myself is not finishing James Joyce's Ulysses.

I'm not a particularly patient reader. I did read nearly every story written by H. P. Lovecraft, though.

[tristan_geoff]

don't do it, I object

[Trollheart]

It is A Tale of Two Cities 🙂

"The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie whom he had never met."

I think there's a trial if I remember correctly.

Yeah you're right. There are a lot of moving parts in that book. Even so, the one I mentioned opens in a debtors' prison (Marshalsea I think) so I'm also right.

I know of the books you mention and I do think one should read some of the classics, or at least attempt them. I don't always care too much for them.

I never finished War & Peace. It was just introducing a bunch of characters at first and I couldn't see a discernable plot.

I also bailed on Moby Dick. Melville is such a slow writer. Yes yes, he shares a bed with a black man. Get on with it!

I even tried Don Quixote, but only for a little while.

My biggest disappointment with myself is not finishing James Joyce's Ulysses.

I'm not a particularly patient reader. I did read nearly every story written by H. P. Lovecraft, though.

I also lost patience with Melville. I mean, why does everything crawl along? I know it picks up later on when we get to the good bit about the big fish (!) but it's like slogging through thick treacle or something trying to get there. I gave up too. Never tried Joyce. Never had any specfic desire to. Truth to tell, I wasn't all that much into Dickens until Karen asked me to read her either DC or OT and then I started really getting interested and we ended up reading all his novels (with the exception of Martin Chuzzlewit, and it seems we were not alone, as that was one of his least successful).

Someone once characterised a classic as "something everyone wants to have read but nobody wants to read", and it's true: a lot of literary classics are just really hard to get into, at least for me. Sometimes though it's just to be able to say you've read them, but that doesn't really bother me. I tried Austen, Bronte, couldn't do it. I did enjoy Les Miserables, but we had to skip all the historical stuff because we both got bored with it (Waterloo).

don't do it, I object

Too late! 

[innerspaceboy]

I would LOVE to see your SH journal here! You might have read my SH Collection post from 2020 where I itemized of my 223 CD and 14 DVD libraries of the complete original adventures here. I've only watched a few of the original cinematic adaptations, read a few of the original canon from my 1967 first-single-volume-edition of The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, and enjoyed a few of the old time radio adventures. The catalogue is daunting in scale so I'd love to read your thoughts about which episodes from which realizations you prefer!

[Trollheart]

Cool. Have a look below. Incidentally, I'll be watching Pursuit to Algiers (1945) tonight, when it's on the telly. I believe it uses a throwaway line quoted by Watson at the beginning of "The Norwood Builder", in the review of which I make the point that it would be nice if someone had written stories based around these mentions, and then find they did. You'd be the perfect person to enjoy and appreciate Baker Street Confidential, ISB. I look forward to your views and comments. Thanks.