The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Oxford World's Classics)

Mysteries often have no repeat value.  You read them once, marvel at the twisty surprise ending, and never read them again.  

That is not the case, however, with these tales.  The writing and characters themselves are enjoyable -- and the twisty stories are just gravy.  

I was not eager to read this book.  Long long ago, I had seriously overdosed on Encyclopedia Brown, etc,  and developed an aversion to short mysteries.  Living in Japan, however, I was limited to the small English rack at the Gifu train station bookstore.  One fun thing about buying books in Japan -- they always folded on a brown paper book cover at checkout.  

[A brief sidebar:  In Japan I loved the trend of wrapping up purchases.  You could buy coffee to-go and they would wrap it in a carefully folded paper bag, and seal it with a sticker.  Unwrapping said coffee for a casual drink + walk?:  A serious faux pas.]

Anyways:  Sherlock Holmes.  So it only took one story (~15 pages) to get hooked.  In these, the original stories, Watson is much more interesting than the bumbling "always wrong" character on the old radio show.  He's Sherlock's heavy, at times, and his anchor to reality/the human realm.  Also, am I the only one who didn't know about Sherlock's drug issues?  I had to reread the opening paragraphs of The Sign of Four.  

The writing is excellent, the stories compelling and edgier than you might expect (drugs, race, infidelity, etc), and reading these stories I felt immersed in a different (but relatable) world of yesteryear.  

Another nice thing about these stories: They are freely available on the Internet.  Check out wikisource or project gutenberg for free texts.