If anyone needs me, I'll be reading. Please don't need me.

If anyone needs me, I'll be reading. Please don't need me.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Elementary, my dear Watson...

I found the new film Sherlock Holmes better than it had a right to be, delivering a fresh take on the character while still honoring the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories and the many respected film and television versions of those stories that have appeared over the years. Giving us both spectacle and introspection, speculation and special effects, Sherlock Holmes was a great time all around.

The movie may get you in the mood to check out a few Doyle originals, and the good news for Kindle owners is that everything Sir Arthur wrote about his intrepid detective is available on Kindle, often for free or mere pocket change (don't you just love the phrase "public domain"?). Not long ago, I bought a generous collection of Holmes short stories for something like 80 cents, and I downloaded a Holmes novel for free. Or was it the other way around? In any event, both e-books were beautifully typeset and laid out. What a bargain!

So, do a little hunting on your Kindle and get some Holmes downloaded. Even though the new movie is a lot of fun (and will most definitely generate a sequel, unless I'm wrong about how popular it will be), one should have at least a passing familiarity with the original literary Holmes.

By the way, here's an interesting fact: the famous phrase that titles this post was never actually uttered by Mr. Holmes in any of the written stories.

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