There will come soft rains

[flemmings]

Finished last week?
Moore, ed., Two hundred and twenty-one Baker streets. As I said somewhere, soliciting stories doesn't make for the best reading IME. And since these are all A/Us, where Holmes and Watson are anywhere but Victorian London, they're about as recognizable as Holmes and Watson as, well, Cumberbatch and Martin. Moore has some strange idea that the reboot Sherlocks (including the Downey/ Law travesty) have finally 'freed' Holmes to be something other than Holmes. I'm not sure that's always a good idea. It leaves you with someone called Sherlock Holmes who detects crime: but who might as well be Phillip Marlowe or Travis McGee.

John Dover Wilson, Life in Shakespeare's England. Collection of original sources, probably mined by everyone and his brother. Certainly a passage from Thomas Nashe's' Christ's Tears Over Jerusalem turned up as counterpoint recitative to a recording of 'Who Liveth So Merry.'

Reading now?
Burckhardt, forever and ever. The Killing Moon, which I will finish eventually. That book on Regency rakes that I should probably put back on the shelf because it's not at all the romp I was hoping for.

However, the last few days have been blue and sunny and I haven't needed to work and thus have had what feels like a mini-vacation. So I pulled out what felt like a vacation book- Kim Newman's The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School- and yes, oh yes it is. I only wish I read faster because the weather has gone grey and rain and is scheduled to go muggy and hot, which doesn't suit the book at all.

Next up?
*Will* finish my challenge books. And then, depending how the weather and temps go, shall either start The Prince or retreat into Library Bingo for the next two months. Or... go back to reading Sherlock Holmes pastiche, which I have still three thick collections of.

Comments

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

I really like the first Downey/Law Sherlock movie. In fact, it made me like parts of canon (Oh, you're a boxer, and a mixed martial artist?) that previously irritated. The second movie was the travesty, but still guiltily enjoyable as the bad fanfic fanservice it is.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I didn't see it- the trailer put me off. Who are these roustabouts? and is that your idea of an English gentleman's habitual expression or do you just have a harelip?

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

It's certainly not meant to be a faithful Masterpiece Theatre adaptation. But the dialogue was clever, as were the references to everything from ACD to Young Sherlock Holmes, and the steampunk elements were cohesive instead of annoying. It's the sequel where they go overboard with those elements, to the detriment of everything.