Circling back

[tilly_stratford]

Just as sure as summer will follow spring, I'm pretty sure I will always return to Sherlock Holmes stories. Even if I forget how much I love them years at a time. Usually my infatuation with specific fiction abates after a while, either because I've run out of material or because I've gluttoned myself and had too much at one time -- but Holmes? That's an inexhaustible love of mine, even though I sometimes plain forget just how happy those stories make me.

A few months ago I was in a thrift shop where I spotted a particularly hideous Norwegian edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -- the exact edition I first picked up at the library when I was ten, and which introduced me to the Canon! (It doesn't have a print year listed, oddly enough, but I'm guessing eighties/early nineties from the cover design). So I bought it out of sentiment and put it on my shelf and forgot about it.

And then I was out walking today because I wanted to give Welcome to Night Vale a listen (mostly to fill the temporary Zombies, Run!-shaped hole in my life, my knee is still a wreck), but the file was corrupted and I had to find something else to listen to. I always have one of the BBC Holmes audios stashed away somewhere on my phone, so I thought "Ah, for old time's sake" (the episode happened to Scandal in Bohemia, the first story I ever read). I spent the rest of the walk grinning from ear to ear.

Not just because BBC radio Holmes is by far the best Holmes adaption I've ever come across (I have nothing new to say about Merrison's Holmes, other than that he's wonderful in the role and has the most infectious laugh), but because, goshdarnit, I just love these old stories and characters. Even though I've read them, watched them, and listened to them countless of times, and I always know exactly who did it, and what challenges will be thrown Holmes and Watson's way, I just can't stop loving them.

So now I'm sitting here leafing through that book I bought at the thrift store, feeling like I've slipped on an old comfy sweater. I think this Christmas I'll bring back my tradition of reading that great pastiche story where Holmes is hired to stalk Santa Clause.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grayswandir_/]

Holmes? That's an inexhaustible love of mine

Same here. :) I sometimes forget about him for long periods, too, but I always come back.

Do you know if the BBC radio shows can be downloaded online? I'd like to have something to listen to on the bus, since I spend so much time commuting these days. The radio shows sound like they'd be fun.

[tilly-stratford.livejournal.com]

It's not complete, but a sizeable collection of the audios can be found here (http://www.mediafire.com/folder/8yzchqsqh1tbe/Clive%20Merrison%20Holmes) if you need somewhere to start. I just realized my own collection are just three audios short, I ought dig deeper and see if I can find them somewhere.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grayswandir_/]

Great! I'll start there. Thanks for the link.