Sherlocking With Richard Sveum
By Don Hobbs

Being a Sherlockian can be a thing of luck. You pass a book store and happen to stop and there is that one item missing from your collection. Lucky you stopped. Being a traveling Sherlockian can also be a thing of luck. I have lucked-out many times and been in a city where a Sherlockian event is taking place. Being a traveling Sherlockian, it was indeed a streak of luck that I was home when I get a call from Minnesota Sherlockian Richard Sveum. Dick, as he prefers being called by his Sherlockian friends, was in town attending a medical conference and wanted to see my collection. He is one of the driving forces with The Norwegean Explorers of Minnesota and active with The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota.

As luck would have it, Dick's hotel was just a few miles from where I live. I picked Dick up at his hotel and we came to my house. As any collector knows, there are different kinds of thrills in being a collector. One thrill is making that special, one-of-a-kind find. There is a totally different thrill showing another collector that special find. This was the state of my mind on Saturday afternoon with Dick in my library. We spent a couple of hours basking in that special world of Sherlockian reminiscence of books, collecting, and such. 

Dick is a medical doctor, an allergist by profession but a book lover and great Sherlockian by heart. I have know Dick for nearly a decade but this was the first time we have had an extended time together. I remember Dick being the proverbial  "doctor in the house" one evening in Chicago when someone fainted and needed medical assistance. Our path have crossed in California, Minnesota, Illinois, and New York, but never before in Texas. We eventually left my library in search of food. We ended up at one of the local Mexican food restaurants where we spent another hour or so solving all of the problems within the Sherlockian community.

With our minds and bodies nourished, we drove to Denton, Texas where Recycled Books and Records is found. This store is located on the downtown square on the northeast corner in the old Denton Opry House. It is a 2 story building with over one million used books. It is a throw-back bookshop with narrow aisles and tall shelves. The floor plan closely resembles a maze. It is one of the places where one can get lost and still feel comfortable. We spent another hour or more loading up with treasures that neither of us  needed but bought anyway.

We drove back to Dick's hotel and said our goodbyes. As I drove home afterward, I decided that this was the best Sherlockian day I have had in a long time. It was my lucky day.

Happy collecting and good luck!