Canary-Trainers: Information for New Sherlockians

New to the world of Sherlockians, the BSI, and Scion Societies?

Don’t worry — being a Sherlockian comes with a bunch of privileges and almost no responsibilities. If you’d like to participate in our monthly discussions or even show up to any of the social events, luncheons, conferences, movie watching outings, etc. in which we participate or that we periodically host, please do! Consider yourself formally invited, even if we’ve never met you.

It would be a good idea to join our email list and announce that you intend to attend, so you can be kept apprised and in the loop for any changes or updates to schedule or venue. If we’re going to be discussing a particular story or portion of a book, you will likely want to read that material in order to fully participate in the discussion, but that’s not strictly necessary.

Some resources for folks new (or returning after a hiatus) to the world of Sherlock Holmes:

A full digital copy of the Canon (the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle) can be found here or found here. There are also free ebooks and digital scans of physical copies available from a number of sources.

Where to begin? Well, you could start with the next story on our calendar list, or you could delve into some of the stories that other Sherlockians consider to be the best. Randall Stock tracks some of these here. (That’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as the information Mr. Stock has compiled and collected; be sure to browse the rest of his site.)

You may also be interested in the Hounds of the Internet, an online listserv that’s been around for about three decades! As such, the Hounds have discussed and researched the context in which the stories and novels take place. Those reports can be found here. Their research is arranged by title initialism, according to the system of abbreviations for the story titles that Jay Finley-Christ devised.