Twelve and restless, I started reading,
Hardy Boys and little else.
Taking turns reading blue and yellow.
Two hours is what we had,
To retreat, read, and pass on.
We fought, cursed, and split hairs,
To be with Bayport's sleuthing pair.
For seven sons ‘booked.’
All we had were the Hardy Boys,
For breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
It was like the Famous Five and Mallory Towers for girls!
ReplyDeleteMystica, we still have a pile of "Famous Five" and "Mallory Towers" and other books by Enid Blyton. I read a few of them as a kid.
DeleteI read every Hardy boys mystery in our public library, which was only about 4. I liked 'em a lot and later as an adult when I found out how many there were I resented that our library didn't have more.
ReplyDeleteCharles, I liked the Hardy Boys series too and read about eighty of them over a two-three year period. I loved the titles of nearly all the books I read.
DeleteLove this, and love the Hardy Boys.
ReplyDeleteRyan, thank you. The Hardy Boys will never fade away. I'm glad to see identical reprints of the editions I read in my teens.
DeleteI remember watching the TV show in the late 1970s and did try the books but never got in to them - I used to love the series in which Alfred Hitchcock helped the three detectives thoiugh! Nicely done Prashant
ReplyDeleteSergio, thank you. I heard about the television series much later, somewhere in the eighties. I recall almost everything about the Hardy Boys including their best friends and girlfriends who often helped them on their cases.
DeleteI started out reading TOM SWIFT, JR. adventures and when I read all of them, I switched to the HARDY BOYS. Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteGeorge, thank you. I have never read TOM SWIFT, JR and often think of doing so now that the books are available online legally. There is just so much early YA fiction out there.
DeletePrashant, I never read the Hardy Boys, but your piece still resonates, because there were other books in my life - any of us who were obsessive readers as children would know how you felt....
ReplyDeleteMoira, thank you. Besides the Hardy Boys, I recall being charmed by the uninhibited world of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. My perspective about Twain's classics would be different today than when I first read them as a school kid. I was pretty obsessed with Hardy Boys.
DeleteI actually tried to finish off my Hardy Boys hardcover Collins collection over the summer, Prashant. Just need to add another 4 or 5 titles now. Being a completist is a pain.
ReplyDeleteColin
Colin, it's great that you still have your collection of the Hardy Boys series. The familiar hardbacks are a joy to behold. I hope you find the missing numbers. Although small in size, I like the new reprints.
DeletePrashant, My husband read The Hardy Boys. I haven't read them but did think about trying some and also the TV series, which could be fun. I have not read the Nancy Drew novels either.
ReplyDeleteTracy, I read the Hardy Boys up to number eighty in just two years as they came to my part of the world very late, somewhere in the late seventies. I loved reading the adventures of Frank and Joe Hardy and their friends.
DeleteI'm sure I read a fair few of these back in the day. Can't say I remember them at all I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteCol, I'm planning to read some for old times sake. I used to enjoy reading them a great deal.
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