The Hound of the Baskervilles
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Wow - this is the third of the full audio Sherlock Holmes audio books I've listened to, available from Gutenberg or AudioBooksForFree.com. They are excellent - the books themselves are, of course classic, but the reader is nothing but brilliant. I especially liked listening to this exchange, after Holmes has provided deductions regarding a warning message sent to Sir Henry Baskerville, composed of cut out words from a newspaper:
"Really, Mr. Holmes, this exceeds anything which I could have
imagined," said Dr. Mortimer, gazing at my friend in amazement.
"I could understand anyone saying that the words were from a
newspaper; but that you should name which, and add that it came
from the leading article, is really one of the most remarkable
things which I have ever known. How did you do it?"
"I presume, Doctor, that you could tell the skull of a negro from
that of an Esquimau?"
"Most certainly."
"But how?"
"Because that is my special hobby. The differences are obvious.
The supra-orbital crest, the facial angle, the maxillary curve,
the--"
"But this is my special hobby, and the differences are equally
obvious. There is as much difference to my eyes between the
leaded bourgeois type of a Times article and the slovenly print
of an evening half-penny paper as there could be between your
negro and your Esquimau. The detection of types is one of the
most elementary branches of knowledge to the special expert in
crime, though I confess that once when I was very young I confused
the Leeds Mercury with the Western Morning News. But a Times
leader is entirely distinctive, and these words could have been
taken from nothing else. As it was done yesterday the strong
probability was that we should find the words in yesterday's issue."
Now on to new worlds, or old. I have some language lessons (Spanish) on audio that I've copied to mp3 for my player, and the Greek New Testament. Edification commences!
On less edifying fronts:
Visions of Sugar Plums
Janet Evanovich
This was a lot of fun. Not a full-blown Stephanie Plum, this is a light novella - sort of a Stephanie-as-not-quite-a-Scrooge learns the "True Meaning" of Christmas. It actually fills in a couple of details between books 7 and 8, but otherwise may be a slightly parallel universe. Then again.... Stephanie's world is already a parallel universe all its own....
