This was probably the first series of books that I read, and started me on not only my extreme love of reading, but my love of series.
Single books are fine and wonderful, but there is nothing like a good series of books, where familiar characters, that become friends of a sort, show up under different circumstances with the same good writing and excellent stories.
I read them all. Probably 40 or so. This was probably circa 1968-69 when I was about 7 or 8 and in the 2nd or 3rd grade. I didn’t read the later ones that were published after I grew up. My guess is that they don’t really hold up well for older readers. There are about 60 now, with some offshoot versions that put them at about 150.
Unfortunately, I never read the Nancy Drew books, because “those are for girls”. So that was a bit of a loss. I wish someone would have pointed out the error of my ways back then. That would have been another 40 books or so that I could have enjoyed.
It also started me out on liking Mysteries, although I never really locked into that genre like some people seem to. I like mysteries, but I don’t read only mysteries, or even necessarily seek them out. And I haven’t read (m)any of the “adult mysteries” of the writers that are so popular.
It also started me out on liking Action-Adventure stories, as well. Although many stories have some sort of mystery and/or action and adventure in them. I definitely like mixed genre stories.
Later I would read Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “Tarzan of the Apes” series (a bit late (in a way, but also very early age-wise), sometime in the 7th or 8th grade or so, although I had a high school and then college reading level early on), and then his Barsoom series (John Carter of Mars series), and Pellucidar and Venus series. There are still many of his books that I haven’t read.
So many books to read, and never enough time.
But that started me out on Science Fiction as a genre, which became a strong influence in my life. (encouraged, if only indirectly, by my older brother and my uncle) Later I would delve into horror with Stephen King and Dean Koontz, among others.
That lead me to what I call Survivalist Fiction, which is basically Post-Apocalyptic fiction. (post-nuclear war, post-plague, post-comet or meteor hitting the earth, etc…, most of which involve some sort of survival after-the-fact) There are a lot of series of books of that genre, so I found a home there. I collect Survivalist Fiction, and claim to have the finest collection this side of the Mississippi. (which is probably not far from the truth — although I’m not as into it as I used to be) And now we have the Zombie genre as a sub-genre of Survivalist Fiction.
Along the way you find many good authors of many genres. I can read pretty much any well-written book of any genre. Reading a wide range of genres and authors helps a person be well-read, which is of vital importance, imo. It helps make a person a better person in so many ways. (intellectually, emotionally, culturally, etc.) I’ve traveled the world, and the universe, having barely left California.
Reading is also vital if you want to be a writer, and has made me a better writer in many ways. First you read, then you write. (and we don’t write – we re-write)
I was very lucky to have parents who read as role models. I don’t remember them ever actually encouraging us to read, but perhaps they did. It was really almost expected of us. Since my older brother and sister also read, they were role models as well. Literally almost every night, at bed time, you could “hear” all of the books being read by the whole family before sleep settled in across the house. I often read late into the night, which made it difficult to wake up in the morning and then get to school. My parents were never particularly strict about that most of the time. But they probably should have been more so. I also don’t remember them checking on what I was reading, but maybe they did, the way parents do.
Several years ago I counted the number of books I had read, guesstimating as closely as possible, just to satisfy my curiosity. The number was several thousand, mostly fiction, but quite a bit of nonfiction, as well. (plus MANY computer manuals and such) I read a lot of books on science and related subjects. Libraries are wonderful things. I’ve checked out and read many hundreds of books from libraries alone. (not so much these days)
It’s kind of hard to believe that I’ve read that many books. But if you read even 3 books a week, which was low for me for some weeks, especially when I would sometimes read 3 to 5 books a weekend (and not all of them “thin”), and some weeks probably 10 books or so, they add up over the months and years. Taking 5 books a week as an average, which is probably about right, that’s 20 books a month, or about 250 books a year. Take 200 to be conservative, and multiply that by age 10 to 30, or 20 years, and that’s 4,000. I read less the older I got because you have to work and such, and I haven’t been reading as much these last many years, to my great chagrin, partly due to health issues and not feeling well, although I’ve been reading more the last couple of years. So another 20 years of some reading has to put me well in excess of 5,000 books easily. (but probably under 10,000) And I’m not done yet.