Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Book Set Review: The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Easton Press)

 


This is a three-set collection of the complete Sherlock Holmes mystery stories and novels, written over the period of time from the late 1880s to the late 1920s by Sir Authur Conan Doyle. The volumes are titled The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Later Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Between the three volumes, the 56 short stories and four novels are spread across nearly 1800 pages. The first volume is the longest, at 753 pages, the second volume is just over 450 pages, and the third volume is just over 550 pages. As is the case with all of the Easton Press books, they are leather-bound with gold-trimmed pages, and have a built-in cloth bookmark. There are 160 illustrations (and the illustrated pages do not count toward the overall page count of the books), many of which were in the original publications in which the stories were printed.

Most of the 56 stories and 4 novels are written from the perspective of Dr. Watson, who introduces and then narrates the cases. Watson, of course, plays the more straight-laced sidekick to Holmes' quirky and offbeat lead. This is the first time I have read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories in years, and the first time that I have read the entire collection. A few of the observations that I have are:

1.    The old English style of writing and dialect definitely takes some getting used to. For example, Doyle will use the word ejaculate like we would use the word exclaim. Even if you are a relatively fast reader, you may have to slow down as you are reading these. 

2. The various stories are relatively disconnected. From time to time events from other stories will be referenced, but for the most part, this is a collection of stand-alone procedural mysteries. 

3. Unlike what you might expect if you have watched the BBC TV series or the recent movies starring Robert Downey Jr., Moriarty is not as big a foil for Holmes as you might think. He only appears in one of the stories and is referenced in a few others. 

4. The TV series that starred Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman heavily adapted the stories from the books. If you watched all of the seasons of the show you will definitely recognize some of the elements from the stories easily, and others seem nothing like what the show depicted. 

Overall, the stories are good but very quirky.  They are probably not necessarily the easiest stories for someone in the modern-day United States to read and easily pay rapt attention to every word. But they are classic mysteries that are worth reading.

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