If my library burned down?

I like to read a lot of non-fiction, mainly scientific or technical books. Now I am in the process of reading two books simultaneously, one of which is Finding Moonshine by Marcus du Sautoy. The book is about symmetrical objects in mathematics, and perhaps this blog is not the right medium to discuss the book in detail. What I am more interested in today is a remark the author makes in a certain context in the book. He quotes someone saying which book that person would pick up if his library burnt down. And that got me thinking. Which book would I pick up, if my modest library at home burned down for some reason?

221B Baker Street

I would gladly barge in this address, and nothing would please me more than being greeted by a man in his trademark deerstalker cap, pipe and cape-backed overcoat. He would then proceed to tell me (although never having met me before that day) what I did for a living, and probably deduce why I was there to see him. I would be surprised, yes, but that would not be unanticipated, for I would be talking to none other than Sherlock Holmes, perhaps the greatest detective ever created in English literature.

Sherlock Holmes

Part-I

Holmes, who first appeared in publication in 1887, was featured in four novels and 56 short stories. The first story, A Study in Scarlet, appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887 and the second, The Sign of the Four, in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in 1890. The character grew tremendously in popularity with the beginning of the first series of short stories in Strand Magazine in 1891; further series of short stories and two novels published in serial form appeared between then and 1927. The stories cover a period from around 1880 up to 1907, with a final case in 1914.