26/11/24, 18:03 - Quick update today as I do not particularly feel like writing. I finished “The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes” yesterday, 25th of November, 2024… I have some mixed feelings. I am of course a bit sad about being done with the books and I've realized since finishing them that they were taking up a lot of my free time and I'm not really sure what to do with it now, but simultaneously I am glad that I did manage to reach the goal I had set for myself. I plan to watch as many adaptations as possible now and hopefully shortly review them. Not promising much though, I can't seem to find any motivation to write one for the soviet adaptation.
Anyway! I'm still watching Granada Holmes. Even as I write this I am watching the 25th episode “The Bruce Partington Plans”. There's not much I can say about this show I haven't said before; as I predicted I enjoy Edward Hardwicke's Watson just as much, but there's nothing else I can or want to comment on right now.

24/11/24, 18:22 - GOT A NEW BOOK! GAAHHAHHH!! Oh my god I am incredibly excited! It's a spanish translated edition of "His Last Bow", got it on a bookstore while on a trip to a nearby city. Contrary to what I thought would happen, Sherlock books are surprisingly hard to find? I had to visit at least 3 different bookstores and this was the ONLY book I found. Anyway - look at that cover, it's incredible! It also has all of the official Sidney Paget illustrations. Overall it is super nice! The quality is exceptional compared to the only other book of the saga I have and it has a lot of nice details. I'm planning to start reading it whenever I'm done with "The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes" just so I can actually finish my goal of reading them all but I'm very very excited.



20/11/24, 15:47 - Finished “His Last Bow” some days ago and I've read a few of the stories in “The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes”. I am SO nervous! I'm a bit scared to be so close to the end… I have an infinity of different adaptations on all mediums to watch, read or listen to when i'm done, obviously, but i can't help but feel sad it's coming to an end. It is also a bit ridiculous to take this so seriously. I can't help it though! It's been practically invading my daily thoughts and reading a few stories a day has practically become part of my daily routine. I fear I am going to miss it a lot.
Anyway… I don't think there is much I can say about the books to be completely honest. I've been enjoying them a lot, don't get me wrong! I just dont think there's much for me to comment on. I must admit though that I feel like case-wise the first stories were a bit better… but the general focus and development of Holmes and Watson's relationship totally makes up for it. I like to keep track of the little moments they share outside of cases and I dont think ive highlighted any of the other books as much as the last two!
Overall, it's been great. As much as I am a bit scared to finish the last book, I am also incredibly excited to get to watch other adaptations and have a better base for understanding or forming an opinion on them. Does that make sense? I feel like that now that I know what the originals are like it's going to be much easier to formulate better opinions on any adaptations I may watch in the future and I guess in a way make a better job when writing reviews for this page. Do not expect anything particularly good, though. I've never been a fan of being objective when rating things. It's probably a bad thing but I also do not really care.
On the topic of reviews, I still have to write one for “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson”! I've finally read all the cases needed to actually understand the ending but I fear I may still have to rewatch the episodes to genuinely comprehend what happened in them. I am still a bit confused on why exactly they were so hard for me to get through… it has some weird jumps in time that are honestly necessary to be able to narrate the events in a way that makes sense to the viewer but also stay true to the original adaptation - noticed this particularly when reading “His Last Bow”, as in, the story by that name included at the end of the book - but even knowing that it was just really hard for me to process for whatever reason… I definitely have to rewatch those eventually.
I've decided I'll pick Granada Holmes back up as soon as I'm done with this book. If i'm not mistaken, from the second season on David Burke doesn't play Watson anymore. I'm a bit sad about it! But I'm sure I'll like Edward Hardwicke's Watson just as much. Well, on a completely different and a bit irrelevant topic, this friday im going out to a nearby city to hang out with some friends and we included going to some bookstores in the zone in our plans. Sherlock Holmes books are certainly easy to find… I'm really hoping I get lucky with the prizes so that I MAY be able to expand my collection. I would not bet on it though… Either way it would be fun to encounter one in the wild. Pretend I'm not talking about one of the most popular book franchises of all time for a second, okay? I get excited over silly stuff like that when it comes to my interests.
Oh, and speaking of my collection! I've expanded it just a little bit. It's not really much, but DIYs are a must, so I've added a few of them. This tiny Sherlock dedicated corner of my shelf was kind of a spur of the moment type of thing and I've always been a bit shy to even HAVE stuff of my fixations, so my mom was definitely surprised when she walked in and noticed the miniature shrine that seemed to pop out of nowhere. Here's a picture of it:



Well, that's about it for today. Not exactly sure when the next update to this will be. Maybe after I finish the book? I guess we'll see.



17/11/24, 02:04 - No actual update yet - all I really have to say is that I did manage to finish Valley of Fear - but I felt the need to share this picture of my Sherlock collection I took earlier because I've been seeing a lot of people's collections lately.



The hat is very poorly done simply because I do not have a printer so I had to manually draw and re-scale a papercraft guide that is originally meant to fit in your head... Needless to say it was very hard to figure out the dimensions and I fucked it up a lot of times. Oh and I also actually accidentaly stole that book from a classmate. I have no intention of ever giving it back though... so sorry to that guy but I don't think he cares much about it.



15/11/24, 20:59 - Finished the first season of Granada Holmes! It was spectacular :) Both Jeremy Brett and David Burke's interpretations of their respective characters are incredible… exactly how i imagined both characters to be! Overall the show was super fun to get into and I found myself constantly wanting to watch another episode… usually while doing important stuff like studying… but the show was just that good! I think all of the cases were adapted wonderfully and it was very nice to revisit some of the first ones I had kind of forgotten. I think since it's so early on there's not much for me to say, but if i had to pick my favorite episode so far it would definitely be “The Red Headed League”, i genuinely found it hilarious??? Leaving some of my favorite scenes from the case below so I can share:

Favorite scenes from "The Red Headed League"

I'll wait a bit before watching the second season though. I want to at least finish The Valley of Fear and maybe a bit of His Last Bow before I continue, simply because I feel like I've been neglecting the whole reading aspect… mostly because I'm struggling with the Valley of Fear… it's been good so far but i can't seem to fully focus when reading it. Plus I just got to the second part of the book and there's no Sherlock, no Watson… How do they expect me to keep reading under these conditions… I think the story is interesting enough to keep going though! I expect to finish it soon.



8/11/24, 19:14 - I had already written this update around a week ago, but I did so during class and my phone randomly decided to delete all of my recent notes… Needless to say, I am very pissed off. Still! I'll try to remember what thoughts exactly I had shared on that now lost entry, and complement it with whatever new stuff has come up.
I believe I mentioned on my last update that I had just finished The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and was now starting the Hound of Baskervilles. I finished the novel around a week ago, I think? While I was supposed to be reading geography class material… in my defense I had only 10 pages left!
I'm pretty sure there aren't many thoughts I can share about it though. I had my opinion on the story pretty much covered on my last entry and, considering how incredibly close to the original story the soviet adaptation is, there isn't really anything new or different to remark. In fact, I was surprised at how well the show adapted the story - not that I found the original one uninteresting, but it gave all of the characters such an unique touch that definitely made the story just a bit more interesting! Also, the bits where Sherlock was absent were not as tedious to get through as I thought they could have been and I'm very glad about that.
Anyway, moving on: I finished “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” and i've read only the first chapter of “Valley of Fear”. I've only just started the novel so there isn't much i can say about, if at all, but The Return was very good! I can't tell if I liked the short stories more than the ones on The Memoirs though… I loved both of them!
On another, and possibly last note, I also finished watching The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (often referred by me as “the soviet adaptation”; it's just easier). I know I said I'd finish reading the books first but I couldn't wait! Right as I predicted in my last entry, I didn't really understand much. The jumps in time were confusing me A LOT… and I'm pretty sure I didn't understand the last case whatsoever. Whenever I get to actually reading the original stories I'm sure I'll finish processing what I've watched and I'll finally be able to appreciate the ending even more, but even now I can say I absolutely loved the series! I was going to go more in depth on this, but I feel like it's better if I save up what first impressions I've got for later whenever I actually get around to writing a short review of the show. All you really need to know right now is that I am completely fascinated by it.
Thats around it. Not exactly sure when i'll update this… right now I still have to finish Valley of Fear and as of, right now, I am also going to start watching the Granada Sherlock Holmes adaptation - I checked the episode list and made sure I had read all of the cases of at least the first season - so maybe I'll write another one of these reporting on my progress on the future, and a proper review for the show eventually... not promising it will be anytime soon.



3/11/2024, 16:50 - Just finished reading “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes”. Loved it! I found the short cases to be even more interesting than the ones on “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”. I have already seen a TV adaptation of “The Final Problem” - specifically the soviet one - but reading the original story was really interesting and I was really glad to be able to understand Watson's perspective on the matter a bit better… It does leave me wondering how exactly the matter of, well, Sherlock “coming back to life” and all is going to be handled later on, if at all. The Soviet version did what in my very inexperienced opinion I consider an amazing job at handling both his supposed death and his return (way more emotional than what I expected! which is exactly what I was looking for in a Sherlock adaptation), so I'm pretty curious to see what it was like originally and be able to compare it a bit more accurately to any shows or movies I may watch in the future.
So far so good! I'm very excited to start reading "The Hound of Baskervilles" as well. I saw the soviet adaptation for it and I found the story to be very interesting - I was particularly fond of the “supernatural” or almost “horror” aspect the story has to it - and I really want to compare it to the original novel. Not sure if the parts where Sherlock is not present will be as interesting as they are on the show… I'm really hoping they are. I'd hate to get bored of it half-way through! It almost happened to me with “A Study in Scarlet”, to be completely honest.
Besides that, I want to finish reading at least what I consider essential for understanding the two episodes of “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson” I have left before I attempt to watch them again. Believe me, I tried my best to comprehend what was going on while watching the first part of episode 10, but I believe there's some context I'm missing that I may be able to understand better later on if I've actually read the original stories. If I'm not mistaken, the stories portrayed in those two episodes I've yet to read are "The Adventure of the Second Stain", "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" and "His Last Bow", all of which are in books I'm not even close to getting to just yet… I have to finish “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” to get the first one, then “The Valley of Fear” and only then I can read the other two on “His Last Bow”. I could technically just skip to those but I want to keep up the structure I've been following lately. I think this is all I have to comment on so far… I'll update as soon as I'm done with the Hound of Baskervilles :)