Introducing the Sherlockian mini-library, coming soon to Atlanta.
As the rapidly approaching 221Bcon is looking like a fine opportunity to take a little pressure off of our overcrowded house, I started sorting out what might make good giveaways, dispersables, etc. for appropriate moments, whatever they might be. And then that small set of shelves I could never find a place for came into my line of sight. Good, solid, old-fashioned wood shelves, two feet wide by three feet wide. And I started to wonder: Could I stock those shelves with an appropriate sampling of books to provide a decent Sherlock Holmes mini-library to one of our newer passengers on the great hansom cab of Sherlockiana?
I'd need a good edition of the complete Canon, of course. Some apocrypha. Some reference books. Some Sherlockian scholarship. A sampling of journals. And an array of classic hardcover pastiches. (Every bottom shelf should have pastiches. They provide a foundation that says "Sherlock Holmes" and can sacrifice themselves to rising floodwaters to save rarer tomes.)
So I built the above. It still has a few gaps to fill, but that's entirely do-able. The thing of it is, through what mechanism might I find a willing winner for such a prize? The arrived-by-air attendees are kind of out of luck, being limited by carry-on restrictions. (They might like some of the things that didn't fit on those shelves that I'll be bringing along, though.) Elder attendees are liable to have most of it already. So how does one properly give away a Sherlock Holmes mini-library?
Any great ideas out there besides, "Just give it to me!"? (Which might not be entirely ruled out -- like I said, the house is way too crowded.)
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