Wednesday, January 29, 2014

The influence of my childhood reading

Having to empty one of my bookcases to move it for the heat pump work was an inconvenience. But on the positive side, it has allowed me to look over some books that I haven’t opened in years.
Some of those books are ones that I received as a child.
I was a bookworm from an early age. I remember being fascinated with books even before I could do more than recognize the letters of the alphabet.

OCD has bothered my reading on and off, but I always find my way back to the love of reading.

Trixie, Honey, Diana, Jim, Brian, and Mart find mysteries to solve even while on vacation in Arizona.

I found my first two Trixie Belden mysteries among some books that my oldest brother had read when he was a young boy. Those Trixie Belden books started my lifelong love of mystery books.
I eventually collected most of the series, but over the years, through a lot of moves as a young adult, I’ve ended up with just two.

I took the whole box of Little House books with me on vacation one time and read my favorite parts as I rode in the car.

When I was in the third or fourth grade, I received the Little House books for Christmas. I read and reread those books so many times. I can still remember many of the stories.

This is the second book in the series, where the Ingalls family moves out to the prairies.

I got in the habit as a child of writing my name in my books. Here’s my signature as a child:



Nancy Drew was another favorite series. I collected a lot of them, and still have them. Password to Larkspur Lane was one of the best.

This book had some scary moments. Nancy helped rescue some elderly people being held against their will.
I’m still working on organizing my books. I’m moving them around on different bookcases, trying to give them a logical order and trying to keep them neat enough to enjoy looking at.
Here’s what I’ve done so far. You can see that I still love mysteries.



On the top shelves, you’ll find Sue Grafton, Kathy Reichs, Meg Gardiner and Lee Child. On the bottom shelf are my Trixie Belden, Little House, and Nancy Drew books.

I’ve recently discovered the mystery/thriller novels of John Sandford. I’ll be adding his books to the shelves soon.

What did you read when you were a child? If you read mysteries now, who is your favorite author?


14 comments:

  1. I loved the same books! My fav Nancy Drew was the one about the clue in the crumbling wall (or something like that). I read Trixie Belden too. And I still have my set of Little House - just like yours except in a blue collectors box and with all blue covers :-)

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  2. LOVED Nancy Drew and Little House books! My grandmother and I would go to the library once or twice a week during the summer. I'd always read too fast and then have to re-read the same books until we could go get another one. Such wonderful memories.

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  3. i still love the little house books! the books i remember most from my childhood are the billy and blaze books. i loved horses and would check those out from the school library every week :)

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  4. You were a very prolific reader! I think mysteries make us better readers. I don't read mysteries. Kids who start reading early tend to be life long readers.

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  5. I read whatever I could get my hands on as a child! I am such a reading addict that it's possible I was born with a book in hand :)

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  6. Password to Larkspur Lane! I remember that book! ...and so many other Nancy Drew mysteries. Add Agatha Christie to that. The Bobsey Twins. I know there's more. I will always be grateful that my parents, though they didn't have formal education, were readers.

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  7. OH, my! We share Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew. I loved Trixie Belden. I wanted to be Trixie Belden. I still have many of them up at the lake. And I'm still a major mystery fan today with my favorites Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs books and Cara Black's Aimee LeDuc books set in Paris. But I'm also fond of Anne Perry and pretty much most of the Brits! How fun!

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  8. Oh I loved Nancy Drew and all the little house books. I seem to hold on to books much like you it is hard for me to part with them. Love your bookcase. Enjoy. Hug B

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  9. i don't remember what i read as a child. i am not an adult reader as i have memory issues, even when reading longer blog entries!!

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  10. Your bookshelf looks like what I would like mine to look like. I am a mystery lover, too. I read Nancy Drew as a kid and got in to Agatha Christie at an early(ish) age. I have gotten hooked on the Scandinavian mystery writers since I read my first Wallender mystery by Henning Menkell.

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  11. I loved The Bobbsey Twins........showing my age I guess!

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  12. You sure brought back the memories today...I collected the little house books and Nancy Drew...I especially loved Nancy Drew; I guess because we shared the same name.....I have always loved reading and still love the feel of turning the pages even though I do use my Kindle lots now....

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  13. I loved Nancy Drew but at my library the librarian wouldn''t buy them as they weren't 'good reading' material. So I had to beg, borrow and buy my own. I found Trixie Beldon at an older age- teen, I think. I was using the first book to practise my typing an d got interested in the story! My fav Nancy drew was Sign of the Twisted Candles. Also liked Island of the Blue Dolphins and other survival in nature books. I used to love those church rummage sales (maybe they still have them?). They were always good for cheap books like Nancy Drew, Donna Parker, Bobbsey Twins etc.

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