Sherlock Holmes

One of the purposes of this blog is to vent the obsessions that grab me. Sherlock Holmes has become the latest one.

It started with the Willis Spring Vacation trip down to St. Louis, MO. We were all packing up taking the van and it was up to me to check out some family friendly audio books. I found some young adult stories and some classics like Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days and H.G. Well's The Time Machine. The hit, both down to Missouri and back was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This production features a nice list of short stories giving us a wide variety of mysterious cases. We all thoroughly enjoyed the book/CDs. This was my very first real introduction to the famous character.

When we returned to the cities I listened to the other audio books I had checked out. What a discovery! My commutes to and from work were full of adventurous entertainment. To this day I still listen to people reading books on my commutes and I look forward to every one of them. Inevitably, I would return to Arthur Conan Doyle's works remembering how much I enjoyed the first exposure.

At the time of writing this post I'm finishing A Study in Scarlet which is the first appearance of Holmes and tells how he and Watson became flat-mates and friends. In geek terms- the Origin Story. I've also recently finished The Sign of the Four which I believe is the 2nd story in the canon order.

With an attempt to share my interest with my family, I've found an animated adventure series that tells light stories of Holmes and Dr. Watson. The twist here is every human character is portrayed as a dog in Sherlock Hound. The great thing about Sherlock Hound is that it was made (in the '80s) by Hayao Miyazaki! That means quality a higher level of quality always found with Miyazaki (this is pre-Ghibli productions) and Sherlock Hound is no exception.

The funny part of all this is I passed on the recent Hollywood Sherlock Holmes adventure. I originally assumed the production was an attempt to build a franchise, making it an action adventure and completely stomping on the original vision. This might be true.  While I did view the movie as something I'd consider, I never did venture out and see it. I very much look forward to seeing in the near future. I've read many accounts that it is closer to the literary origin than most of the previous screen adaptations were.

Another funny thing about the timing of my obsession is BBC is about to air a miniseries, updated telling of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.



I do say this looks pretty good. It ought to be good. After all, it's from the guy who's giving us the latest series of Doctor Who, Steven Moffat!

One more thing that deserves mention for cementing this latest obsession... I've had my face in a recent gaming purchase. GURPS Mysteries has been a fantastic read and a perfect supplement to this fancy of mine. Has my mind churning for possible stories to subject my family members to, the ones willing to roll dice with me.

So there it is. Welcome to my latest obsession.

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