Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys

[rocklobster]

Did anyone here read these as a kid? Sure they're ghost-written nowadays (the original writer died a VERY long time ago), but I thought they were pretty enjoyable. It was fun to try to solve the mystery alongside them, and I loved the team-up books.

[bigsleepj]

I never read Nancy Drew, but a lot of Hardy Boys. I did not enjoy them that much, though they were entertaining. I was a bigger fan The Three Detectives, a series of books ostensibly written by Alfred Hitchcock though in actually written by Robert Arthur, a frequent collaborator of Hitch, who just endorsed the series (and sometimes appeared in them as a mentor character to the children adventurer detectives). Though more popular outside of the states, currently, than in it, I still feel that its better detective stories in many respects than the Hardy Boys. The plots ranged from creepy to bizarre and the clues themselves were picked apart by the three characters to understand it. Also, I found the main characters (especially the Mycroft Holmes-esque leader) to be more interesting than Frank and Joe Hardy combined.

[rocklobster]

I read those Three Detectives books! I thought they were a great series. It's a shame they weren't more popular.

[Beau Soir]

I know that I used to read Nancy Drew books, but I really don't remember much about them. I preferred other genres like those of the old Girls of Many Lands (by the American Girl company) books. I think my brother used to read Hardy Boys though.

[bigsleepj]

I read those Three Detectives books! I thought they were a great series. It's a shame they weren't more popular.

They're very popular in Europe - so popular that in Germany the books continued in German to form a seperate series. Not that I read those...

[Atria35]

Nancy Drew has been written and re-written many times over the years. I happend to own my mom's 1950's copies when I was a kid.... back when she solved mysteries by finding a dirty boot in the backseat of the bad guy's car. You really could tell the times through those- she was waiting around for her boyfriend to graduate college so they could marry, her friends fell into weight stereotypes (which I rather resented because I was a tad pudgy myself, but that didn't make me stupid or not like sports!), and the clothing was, of course, skirts and blouses.

I've read a few of the new and updated versions, but I'm past the age where I'd devour them. They do a decent job of the stories and integrating modern technology (and better sleuthing skills!), but with technology changing so fast, I think that the earliest of the updated ones are already out of date.

[FllMtl Novelist]

I read a bunch of the Nancy Drew books, and I probably liked them at some point, but before too long they annoyed me. Certain facts were inconsistent throughout the series (Nancy meets Ned in one of the first 20 or so books, but later it says they'd known each other since they were kids ), and Nancy was a little too nice. My little sister devoured every book she could get her hands on, though.

I never read the Hardy Boys, though I remember when I was really little mockingly saying, "Hardy boys, smarty boys", whatever that meant. XD Some lady at the library overheard it and thought it was a riot.

[MomentOfInertia]

I read Hardy Boys.