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You Read All Them Books?

"Have you read all of these books?"

"Why yes, I have. I've read them all."

"Even the ones in Chinese?"

"Yes, sort of, anyway."

And so goes the conversation whenever someone visits my library for the first time. Why is it that non-readers and/or non-Sherlockian seem to always ask if you have read all of the books? Are they intimidated by all of the knowledge locked between the covers? Or are they just being polite and trying to make conversation? Whatever the reason, it happens too often. It reminds me a line from the movie "Time After Time". H. G. Wells has followed Jack the Ripper into present day San Francisco via his Time Machine. Upon entering an apartment house, he asks, "But where are all of your books?"

Of course being perfectly honest, I have not read every book in my Sherlock Holmes library. I have 2,672 newsletters and journals in my collection. There are several of these I have yet to finish. I have 862 foreign language editions of the Canon, so in a sense I have read all of them. I also have 368 anthologies that include one or more Canonical tale. I have read all of these tales but every story in every book.

What a silly thought -- "Have you read all of those books?" Any collector worth their salt will always maintain roughly a 70% ratio of non-read to read books. The thought here is to continue collecting while the legs are strong. Theoretically, there will be plenty of time someday to catch up on all that reading. Besides, reading gets in the way of collecting, doesn't it? <failed attempt at pawky humor>.

I have read most of the 750 pastiches in my library. It must be a blessing for the readers of The Holmes & Watson Report that there were not MiniReviews written for all of them. I have 150 Sherlockian related comic book but I have not read the last two issues of Sherlock Lopez comic books from Spain but I did look at the pictures!

Some of the pulp magazines that were published throughout Europe in the early years of the last century have not been read. I have several of the pulp magazines with the same story only the different editions are in Polish, Czech, and French. So if I read the French or Polish by virtue of default, I have read the other! This is the Sherlockian collector's means of multi-tasking. There is one of these pulp magazines I hope to read someday just because of its cover. "Whip! El Perro Detective." This particular cover features a dog (Whip?) holding on to the Locomotive Engine in an attempt to halt the train. This one looks like a real gem. "Whip! El Perro Detective" was first published in Madrid on November 7, 1908 in Adventuras Extraordinarias del Detective Lord Jackson, Rival De Sherlock Holmes # 013.

I guess that because I have 387 different copies of The Hound of the Baskervilles, technically speaking, I have read all of those books. So does this mean because I have 122 Sherlock Holmes videos in my library somebody will someday ask, "Have you watched all of these videos?"

Happy Collecting!