One step closer

I have it. It's mine. Every Sherlock Holmes tale that Doyle put on paper is sitting leather-bound on the corner of my bed. It even has the ribbon coming out of the spine I can use to mark my place, something I associate with the Bible or encyclopedias -- books you should read in the sense that it contains neccesary information.

It's comforting and threatening at the same time. I have them all, but now I have to read them all. 1100 pages of elementary, my dear Watson. Where do I start? Cherry-pick or forge from the beginning?

It's rare that I can commit to any book for long. Only Sedaris or Palahniuk have been able to capture me sufficiently. Yesterday I spent an hour reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland after I realized I was halfway through it; Alice has just met up with the Cheshire Cat. Then I got distracted and attacked The Stranger by Camus, which has the details in all the wrong places. I'm 50 pages into Atonement, and it is now sitting atop half a dozen other books I've given the same amount of attention.

This one will look good on my bookshelf at least. Hopefully it won't end up being just used for aesthetic purposes.