When I read Sherlock Holmes stories I can feel my my brain cells expanding.

Another book I haven't read since I was a teen.
Won't leave a lengthy review, there are tons of ink and boatloads of pixels by other people that will serve it better.
I'll just say that these are those rare kinds of story that hold up, maybe for subtly different reasons, whether you read them when you're 13 or 40.
Good show, Mr. Conan Doyle.

Despite this taking me one year to finish, I loved it and I didn't realize I was going to love it as much as I did. Any of the Sherlock novels are worth your time, they are delightful.

One thing I didn't anticipate when I started reading Sherlock Holmes is how much I can relate, as someone training to be a data analyst, to the scientific method and analysis Holmes always applies in each and every case. I thoroughly enjoy how Holmes derives his data in each case and how he will eventually ties these together, perform his analysis and deductions, and finally, take action in bringing each case to a close (not before sharing how he arrived at such conclusions, often with many surprises from Watson and those involved). Of course, sometimes overconfidence does not lead to the expected results (A Scandal In Bohemia), or we might actually have unnecessary data obscuring the facts we needed (The Naval Treaty). Oftentimes, it is a matter of seeing the details but not the whole. Either way, Holmes' method always brings some light to each case, whatever the consequences might be to those affected.

The role of Dr. Watson is not insignificant either. Amidst the facts and logic of Holmes, Watson adds a more dramatic flair in each case. He turns each case from not just a scientific endeavor but also a human one (no matter how much Holmes disagrees about such "sensationalized" accounts). It was also enjoyable to read how Watson reacts to each situation as a representative of the much more normal audience. His friendship with Holmes is also something I commend and also one of the reasons I liked the last collection, The Return Of Sherlock Holmes, the best out of the others since it gave their friendship a somewhat warmer and more humorous tone. In fact, this last collection gave Holmes and Watson a more human and more emotional appeal -- with Holmes being more fallible and Watson being more irritable (which results to banters with Holmes).

Admittedly, the stories of Sherlock Holmes are not the usual format of mysteries I am used to. It doesn't prolong the stakes or the mystery. It doesn't dwell on who did it and why. This is far from an Agatha Christie novel (which I also love) but it doesn't mean it has no charms of its own. At its core, Sherlock Holmes is a character exploration of the infamous detective himself. After reading several of the stories, most of them fall into a similar pattern. But that is the point of it. There's a certain comfort in being on Baker Street with Holmes and Watson and keeping up with their adventures throughout London and beyond. It is akin to visiting old friends time and time again and enjoying the routine of life. Overall, Sherlock Holmes proves to be a fun Victorian adventure with timeless stories and characters.

What is not to love about Sherlock Holmes!!!

1059 pages of awesomeness. I wish he had written more novels.

Took me five years to finish it, but I did! Based on my vague five-year-ago memories, I don't think I was a huge fan of the first two novels included (A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four) and I think that's what contributed to me taking so long to read it. However, the short stories are fabulous. Each are about 20-30 pages and give you just enough detail into a crime or problem for you to start making your own opinions and then Sherlock solves the case. While I was able to guess some or at least be on the right track, his discoveries were surprising enough most of the time. In addition to that, the writing itself is very good, with a good balance of detail and description to dialogue. I really feel like I got a sense for old London. I also really liked that as you read more stories, you slowly get to put together this picture in your mind of who Holmes and Watson are and what their lives and relationship is like. Although each short story only has so many pages, there are usually a few details about the characters introduced in each one, so that a picture of them slowly builds in your mind. Really enjoyed it and hopefully it doesn't take me another 5 years to get to volume 2!

This first volume was not as riveting/interesting as the second volume was to me. Holmes was such as asshat before his 'hiatus', it's a wonder the reading public could put up with his ego!

I may not have found this as interesting because I read the second volume first, and thus by the time I got to the first volume, the stories were starting to follow a familiar, predictable pattern (like all mysteries). I basically sat down last summer and decided, Sherlock Holmes, ho, went through the 4 novels and 56 short stories in about a month and a half.

Volume I here does contain the infamous Moriarty who everyone thinks was really a big part of Holmes's life, but is actually only mentioned twice (in the story he appears in, and in passing in The Hound of the Baskervilles).

Read these stories for Watson. Watson is the bomb. He's not nearly as dumb as the movies would have you think. Remember, he's a doctor, and a writer!

I've been reading this book off and on for months. Since it's short stories, I've been reading them between other things. I'm glad I've finally finished.

So...

I'd always known about Sherlock Holmes. My parents used to watch the old shows on PBS. In high school I read 'Hound of the Baskervilles', and remember liking it, but don't remember much about it. And I loved, loved, LOVED the recent modern movie adaptation with Robert Downey, Jr. So, for the longest time, I consider myself something of a Holmes fan, but realized that, for all that, I'd never really read much Holmes. So I got this book.

Overall, I enjoyed it. I liked the novel length stories a lot, and some of the other stories were great. (Particulars of which stories I liked and didn't like, and various comments, are in my status updates.)

But, that said, I found a lot of the stories sort of predictable. It was hard for me to see them as examples of Holmes' genius when I figured them out from the outset. Sometimes they were truly clever, or amusing, or touching - but a lot of them were sort of ho-hum.

I was also disappointed to learn that Holmes' great rivla, Moriarity, is only in a scant few stories, and Irene Adler is in one! (Of course, I haven't read the second volume, yet, and I still hope this will be rectified.)

In a way, I'm glad I had the exposure to Holmes I did early on, prior to reading the stories, because I'm not sure, if I'd started with the stories, what I'd think, to be honest.

Il primo due volumi che raccolgono tutti i romanzi e i racconti su Sherlock Holmes, personaggio letterario che mi é molto caro. É bello leggere nuovamente le avventure del signor Holmes, e nella lingua in cui sono originariamente state.scritte!

Smrt U svitanje

i like the book but i really did'nt know that Sherlock was into Opium, i guess they have to censor it...
He is not an addict but it helps him dig deeper when he faces a dead end of a case...

im amazed of his common sense, like the marks on clothing could be clues to what a person does for a living or what the person did before coming to him.
i definitely recommend this book (disregard the Opium parts hee hee)