Behind the times.

Well, out of sheer boredom at the "NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES STORY!" parade and some interest caused by Graham Moore's recent blog about how to write good smart people, I ventured out to the local Barnes & Noble on Saturday in search of a real book. I had never gotten to Moore's The Sherlockian, and seemed to remember them having it in stock.

Of course, I hadn't heard about Graham Moore's Oscar nomination for The Imitation Game, or even associated the novelist Moore with the guy who wrote that movie. And that meant, even if it hadn't sold out previously, The Sherlockian had surely gotten some small Oscar bump and was sold out. Disappointed, but willing to pick up a substitute, I soldiered on through the mystery section.

Eventually I came to a series of three books that I didn't recall seeing before, and the title The Baker Street Brothers caught my eye. It took a while for me to figure out which book was the start of the series -- The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson -- and quickly realized why the title hadn't tripped any triggers. Between Sherlock Holmes Letters, edited by Richard Lancelyn Green, and Letters to Sherlock Holmes, by that same editor, actually containing letters sent to the real 221 Baker Street, it seemed like a "been there, done that" on the title alone.

So this week I'm hunkering down with a head cold and reading a five-year-old book. So far so good.