Sherlocking in Slovenia
By Don Hobbs

Slovenia is one of those countries that you know is out there but youcan't quite put your finger on where it is on the map, right? If you are like many American you can't tell the difference or did not even know there was a difference between Slovenian and Slovakia. Slo-what, eh? Well I know the difference because I have plenty of Slovenian and Slovakian translations of the Canon.

Jeff Katz has been sending me scans and bibliographic information for The Galactic Sherlock Holmes. His latest email contained six Slovenian books. All eight were books not listed in De Waal. As I was adding them, I noticed that all of the books I own in Slovenian are ones that are listed in De Waal. The De Waal listings are C2824 to C2833. I own eight of the ten De Waal listed books.

I decided to do an Internet search on the titles Jeff sent me. Four of the books he sent are part of an eighteen volume set published in 1997 in Ljubljana by Karantanija Publishing. Imagine my surprise when the search did not find the book I was looking for but it picked up one of the Slovenian books I already owned. The site is a Slovenian online auction site. To my great delight, the two Canonical books I did not have were for sale on the site.I was in a real dilemma as  I do not read Slovenian nor do I know anyone who does.

My motto is "Never Panic" and I followed this credo. I sent out a message to The Hound of the Internet, asking for a Slovenian contact, I sent a barrage of emails to the Slovenian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and a couple more to a Slovenian translator service. In the meantime, I returned to the Slovenian online auction site at random times during the day. Finally, I decided to register to become a user at the site. After a few error messages, I was actually able to register, receive a user id, and get a password. To top it all off, I was able to place bids on the two books.

It is now a wait and see game. I heard back from Sonia Fetherston, the Grice Patersons, on The Hounds of the Internet. She kindly provided me the name of a professor, who is 80 years old but willing to assist me in all of my Slovenian needs. He speaks ten languages, so he may get tired of me before all is said and done.

I have purposefully evaded giving out too much information about where the books are located because the auction is still ongoing . If I am lucky enough to win the auctions, then I will lift the veil of secrecy. Wish me luck!

Happy collecting!!