Enid Blyton and such

I thought it was only proper to start this of with a trip down memory lane. I grew up reading Enid Blyton.....my dad used to bring back all her books from the library for us. I think I finished reading the entire Secret Seven series with all their secret meetings in the shed and scamper the dog. But by far, my favourite series from her was Five Find-Outers aka the Mystery series, with a very un pc name like Fatty as the head of the group and Mr Goon as the ever unfortunate policeman. I did not quite like The Famous Five however, even though that was her most popular mystery series. I remembered The Faraway Tree ( made me wish for a time there, when I was a kid, to have that kind of tree with mysterious lands behind my house ), The Wishing Chair, The Adventure series and the boarding school series such as Mallory Towers or St Clare's.

Another favourite of mine was The Three Invetigators by Robert Arthur. Who could forget Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews and their Headquarters in the Salvage Yard? Although I must admit, when they translated all those books to BM, they sort of lost their excitement. Hmmm.....I must start collecting them, it would be fun to read them again. Brings back memories.

Then there were Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys series. I have to say I was a bit disappointed and shocked when I read that Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon weren't 2 individuals but rather a slew of authors under those pseudonyms. Couldn't remember when I found that out but surfice to say that I didn't like ND and HB quite that much any more, especially since they became more of a soap opera to me in the recent series. The Three Investigators did had more than one writer at one point, but really, those plots were far more fascinating than ND. ND and HB did combine to solve mysteries in a series of books....I bought two of those I think! As expected ND was attracted to the eldest of the Hardy boys, but each had their respective partners at that time so nothing could happen....wait...I think they did share a kiss in one of the books! ahahaha

Then of course there is the ever popular Roald Dahl. I love Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches......I read his books when I was much older though, and with that comes more appreciation? But his quirky storylines really did set him apart from the others. I was introduced to Judy Blume's books when I was much older too...Are you there God? It's me, Margaret. And of course the Grimm Brother's fairytales. I heard that apparently the original versions of those fairytales weren't exactly PG 13 but of course I have no substantion for that point right now.

There are more authors with fantastic books, but I will leave that for another day....