Books, Books, Books

Another reason that winter drags in Ohio is that there just aren't any good flea markets. You have to content yourself with antique malls, and in my humble opinion, the thrill of the hunt just isn't the same. You might find something interesting, but in looking at the price tag you want to put a padlock on your wallet and go screaming for the car. It's just not the same as the booths filled with junk from someone's attic that's going for a quarter a box.

Finding ourselves in serious junk withdrawal on Saturday, we went to the large antique mall in Maumee.

I came home with these.

If you weren't a preteen girl in the early 1970's, you might not recognize the first three books as numbers 1, 7 and 39 in the original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. Grosset & Dunlap published the original series, of which there were 56 books. The first, The Secret of the Old Clock was published in 1930. The last, The Thirteenth Pearl, was written in 1979.

I think Nancy Drew was my first girl crush. She was independent, confident and smart. She wasn't afraid as she outsmarted villains, endangered herself and her friends by going into hidden staircases and abandoned mansions and crossing haunted bridges. 

And do I dare mention that her best friend was a tomboy named George – short for Georgia??

Critics said that the Nancy Drew books were formulaic and predictable – the characters never aged; the plot was always about restoring an inheritance or a missing identity; the clues involved jewels, maps, diaries and wills; and that each chapter ended with a cliff-hanger. They are correct. But when you're eight or nine and reading book after book, jumping right into a formula that you recognize makes you feel like you're with an old friend and the fun is about to begin.

I'm sure that I read all the books in this series more than once each. And I loved every one of them.

Maybe reading them again will help pass a few dark, late winter Ohio  evenings.

Stay tuned for more on the two books on the bottom tomorrow. You're dying to know more aren't you?? I just pulled a Nancy Drew and used a cliffhanger ending!  

I feel so girl detectiv-ey!!