In The Beginning

I have had this burning desire to start a blog for a while, so here is my first attempt.  I will be posting about my books, projects, cooking, photos, and just life in general.  Hope you enjoy.

Today is a book day.  The first review is below:

The Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Being an aficionado of classic mysteries, you might wonder why it has taken me so long to read any of the original Sherlock Holmes stories.  After reading this compilation, I wonder that myself.  After all, I have read pretty much every Agatha Christie mystery written.  In defense, I can only say, I don't know why.  I ordered this book from the library after Rick (one of my GR buddies) and some others in one of my groups were talking about how much they liked them.  "Wow," I thought, "I wonder why I haven't read them."

I began by reading the introduction written by the editor of the compilation and ended up learning a lot about Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson, and Doyle's relationship with Holmes that fascinated me and only wanted to make me read the stories all the more.  As I began, I could tell early on that they were the type of mystery stories that I really enjoy.  I found myself devouring them.  I was really enjoying the interplay between Watson and Holmes.  In fact, I found Watson to be a totally different character than I expected, and enjoyed his character much more than I thought I would.  He really isn't a bumbling fool, but more of an endearing friend.  In addition, I began to look forward to whatever quirky encounter they were going to be embroiled in next as none of their cases seemed at all straightforward, but were populated with interestingly unusual characters and quirky plots.

In the end, I enjoyed these stories so much, that I bought a two volume set of the the complete Sherlock Holmes, all 4 novels and all 54 of the stories, and decided to begin at the first one.  Three reasons for this decision:

1. Watson kept alluding to other capers in the stories I read that weren't included in that compilation, and I got the distinct feeling that I was missing something.
2.  I wanted to get the full effect of the development of the relationship between Holmes and Watson
3.  I was enjoying them so much, I didn't want them to end.

What I am hoping to do now, is start over at the beginning and read a story or two a week until I have read them all.