I’m a firm believer in the immense value of reading and I’m not sure I can recall any book, no matter how poor, from which I have not learned something. I’m reading the definitive Sherlock Holmes collection at the moment and, surprisingly, I have come across a few unexpected gems.
In the ‘Sign of the Four’, for example, Holmes tells Dr. Watson that he has a ‘peculiar constitution’ in that he can work prodigiously without getting tired but what causes him tiredness is ‘idleness’.
I know what he means for I have the same inclination myself-it is seldom work itself that causes me fatigue but boredom and ‘idleness’ as Holmes describes it.
At the beginning of the book we encounter Dr. Watson observing Holmes injecting himself with cocaine. Holmes explains that when he has a riddle or mystery to solve his mind is occupied and pleasingly engaged. But when he has no riddle to solve he turns to cocaine for stimulation.
I was never a huge Sherlock Holmes fan but my opinion is being altered by a small number of unexpected but astute observations in each of Conan Doyle’s novels I have read to date (a ‘Study in Scarlet’ and the ‘Sign of the Four’).