So in the last week or so I have read A LOT of Sherlock Holmes stories. (I read short story collections on the theory that even if I get so engrossed in the story that I can’t put it down, I still won’t stay up all night reading, because, hey, SHORT story, right? But then if I feel the need to get through the whole collection, that’s a different, er, story.)
And the more of these short stories I read, the more I started to feel really clever, because I figured out some of the clues before Sherlock did! And then I remembered that, um, well, yes, the collection does belong to me, so I was really remembering the clues, not figuring them out. So much for my detective skills.
I also found that I was skipping over a lot of text to get to the "good stuff" - the part where Holmes describes what he figured out and how he figured it out. After reading SO MANY plot intros (how many ways can Doyle find to get Holmes interested in a problem??), all I wanted to read was the clever stuff that he did and how crazy everyone thought he was and how amazingly he figured things out in the end.
And I really think that THAT is the danger of short stories - when you read too many in a row you start to see the formula. For example, Holmes / Doyle NEVER shares his theories with Watson / the reader until AFTER everything has been resolved. So I knew, in reading one of the stories, that this was one in which Holmes did not come up with the correct solution, because he told Watson his theory before all the action took place. And again, all the different ways that Doyle uses to get Holmes involved - someone knocks on the door (that one gets used a lot 
), they find a goose, Watson is tracking down the opium-addicted husband of one of his clients and runs into Holmes in the opium den - and on and on. The beginnings of the stories get old - it becomes just the meat that I want to read, and when I hit that point I know that I have read too many short stories by the same author in a row. Like when I got on that O. Henry kick and all I wanted was the cynical or ironic or tragic punchline.
And the other danger of reading so much Sherlock at once is that I start to think that I, too, can unravel the stories of peoples’ lives from looking at them. And so I tried, as I walked across a university campus today:
Me, the detective: I deduce that that girl is a freshman, getting oriented to campus today. I can tell because I know that New Student Orientation is happening today, and because…
Me: the cynic: …and because her PARENTS are with her, genius??
Yeah…I think I am safer to leave all the "figuring out" up to Holmes and Doyle, but I do enjoy reading it, in moderation.
