All About Books discussion

Have put up thread for this now although I haven't quite got to it yet. Leslie and Alannah - when were you guys planning on starting?

I'll be starting this later today, so perfect timing! :)

I will be starting this tomorrow. Just downloaded the book from ibooks.

Cool, I'm just finishing the Memoirs... then will catch up!

Very fast read so far! And in case anyone likes audiobooks, the Librivox recording version 2 narrated by Bob Neufeld is excellent - you can find it here

Thanks Leslie.

Just finished this. Posting my thoughts now.

My thoughts -

-Even though I have read the collection, the gothic element makes The Hounds of the Baskerville my favourite.
-I loved the supernatural element (with the old legend of the Baskervilles).
- I was hooked on this one, comparared to the others as it really kept me guessing despite the fact I had read this before.

My favourite paragraph:

“It came with the wind through the silence of the night, a long, deep mutter, then a rising howl, and the the sad moan in which it died away. Again and again it sounded, the whole air throbbing with it, strident, wild and menacing.”

I will wait for Laurel before discussing in detail but will say that this has been the most exciting of the Holmes stories I have read!

I'm going to try to read this over the weekend. I can't make promises as there is a two day book festival near where I live and I will be spending time there!

I've just got back from Blackpool so am just starting it now - probably won't take too long as it's quite short!

Just finished and absolutely loved it! The atmosphere was great and I enjoyed Watson's descriptions of the Moors. Loved the old legends of the Hound and the way Holmes takes a bit of a back seat for a while so we can get taken in by a couple of red herring's before he steps in and explains everything.
Only complaint is that because it has been filmed so often, I have seen a few adaptations and so already knew who the villain was etc but it didn't stop me from enjoying it! I bet readers back in Conan Doyle's day were on tenter hooks!

That's what I thought too about the adaptations spoiling it for me. But normally I'm the type of person who doesn't get annoyed if someone spoils an ending for me. Knowing the ending doesn't necessarily spoil it for me.

Laurel wrote: "Only complaint is that because it has been filmed so often, I have seen a few adaptations and so already knew who the villain was etc but it didn't stop me from enjoying it! I bet readers back in Conan Doyle's day were on tenter hooks! ..."

I had that same thought! It was pretty suspenseful even knowing the ending so I think it must have been tremendously exciting to Doyle's contemporaries.

The descriptions of the hound and then the Grimpen Mire were so creepy! I don't recall any of the adaptations having the hound treated with phosphorus to make it glow in the dark.

I agree, spoilers don't usually bother me and it didn't really in this case either. I think it's just that I like the Holmes stories so much I would love to experience them the way the original readers of the Strand would have done - without having had all the years of popular culture in between, although obviously this could never ever be the case for us now (we would have had to have been living under a rock!)

Just a random aside - When I was reading it last night, there was a dog barking and howling outside! I had to put some music on cos it was freaking me out a bit lol!