Sherlock Holmes

What Hacker News says

1. mindcrimeOct 2024
   A few come to mind, over the course of my childhood up to and including high-school.

   The "Mad Scientist's Club" series

   The Great Brain

   Those "Encyclopedia Brown" stories

   The "The Three Investigators" series

   The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

   The original Doyle "Sherlock Holmes" canon

   The Soul Of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder

   The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien

   Nineteen Eighty Four

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2. MPSimmonsOct 2024
   Nonfiction:

   - The Goal, Eli Goldratt - changed the way I thought about getting things done. The Theory of Constraints is important to anyone who makes things.

   Fiction:

   - Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - I love me some Sherlock Holmes, and nothing is more Sherlock Holmes than Hound of the Baskervilles. Terrific writing, great story, spooky setting. Love it.

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3. mindcrimeJan 2024
   I loved these books as a kid back in the 80's. I'm sure they played a key role in shaping my interests and worldview. These, along with the "Encyclopedia Brown" books, the "The Three Investigators" series, the "Tom Swift Jr" series, and "The Great Brain", plus the original Doyle canon of Sherlock Holmes stories, were constant companions in my youth. Oh, and those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. Those were great.

   Every year the local Barnes & Noble does a Christmas book drive thing to provide books for under-privileged children in the area. I usually chip in at least a few titles, and if I could actually find any of those on the shelf (aside from Sherlock Holmes), I'd probably get some of them, so some young kids today could experience the same thrill.

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4. wannabebaristaDec 2023
   It's funny to see this posted because I'm working on writing up my list right now to put up tomorrow. I've done this each December for a few years now. Here's my list from 2022: https://bcmullins.github.io/interesting-books-2022/

   Here's a gloss on my list for this year:

   "Slouching Towards Utopia" by J. Bradford DeLong (2022). A narrative economic history of the 20th century that focuses on the interaction between policy and economic thought.

   "Lost Continents" by L. Sprague de Camp (1954). Looks at Atlantis and other lost continents as rhetorical devices in ancient history and philosophy, 20th century pseudoscience/pseudohistory, and science fiction.

   "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902). My favorite Sherlock Holmes tale yet. Really embraces the themes of gothic literature.

   "The Rise of Universities" by Charles Homer Haskins (1923). Three short lectures on the history of universities. Quite funny! This was part of a project where I looked back at research from 1923: https://bcmullins.github.io/research-from-1923/.

   "The Book of Yokai" Michael Dylan Foster (2015). Explores an interesting aspect of Japanese folklore which has found its way into all sorts of popular media.

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5. nestorDDec 2022
   This might be a good time to note that a large number a Sherlock Holmes stories have been written with the autorisation of the estate since the death of Conan Doyle.

   Of those, I particularly like Neil Gaiman's The Case of Death and Honey.

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6. desioJul 2022
   Feed them fiction! 10 to 13 is great age to nurture the imagination and exploring ideas. - Harry Potter - Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree series - Lord of the Rings (start with the Hobbit) - Sherlock Holmes (and Agatha Christie's mysteries) - Asimov's Robot and Foundation series
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