Thursday, April 24, 2008

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Seven - Elementary My Dear Watson

It was part of my original intent of this project to do things that required me to step outside of my comfort zone. I'm not sure how successful I have been at this, although the number of "things that didn't quite work out" seem to point to the fact that I have done this a number of times. A bit of a theme I have going is to take something I like doing and then do something new with it. Today is a fine example of that. I am a voracious reader. However, I am a bit fussy with what I read - mainly classics and the bleaker the better. As a result I have read "almost everything" - which is to say, everything that I've ever wanted to read, nonfiction notwithstanding.

When we were on holiday in England last winter Joseph shocked me by actually buying a book [and I did not buy a book, which is even more surprising as our house is primarily built with my books and his videogames] - it was a collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels. Of course, I turned up my nose @ this, but in my defence, Joseph hasn't read them either. I have never read one of these novels/stories [and actually I've never read a true mystery novel] so tonight I read a Sherlock Holmes novel. It is actually the first novel, A Study in Scarlet. I'm not quite sure what to say about it - I mean, I didn't hate it. I will certainly read the novel to its conclusion. However, I wasn't convinced either - the language is strangely verbose and the characters are all too character-y. As I am an avid follower of true crime and I do like puzzling out things like that I can't really speak to why this type of story doesn't have more appeal for me.

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