Welcome to another Hooked on Fridays, a blog party I host at the end of each week to celebrate the things that make us happy. When I was a girl, one of the things that made me happiest was collecting Nancy Drew mysteries. I saved my allowance to buy them and always asked for them for my birthday. I wanted to grow up and be a writer just like Carolyn Keene. I kept my Nancy Drew mysteries all these years and have them sitting with their yellow covers on a bookshelf in my bedroom. They still make me smile when I look through them.
I meticulously wrote my initials on the spines of each one with red ink and inscribed the inside covers with my full name, just in case they were ever lost or stolen. This of course means they’ll never be worth much for collectors, but I’d never sell them anyway.
Today I was looking through them and reliving some of my favorite mysteries when it occurred to me. There’s a recurring theme to the Nancy Drews on my shelf that I never noticed before.
They all have something to do with houses. Imagine that! My favorite mysteries had titles like The Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion. The Hidden Staircase. The Mystery at Lilac Inn. The Ghost of Blackwood Hall. The Bungalow Mystery. And The Secret in the Old Attic.
Did you read Nancy, too? Check out this Nancy Drew website to learn everything you ever wanted to know about her and see how the covers changed over the years.
Now it’s your turn to tell us what you’re hooked on today! If you have something to share with us on your blog, then add your link below. Just please be sure to:
- Add the permalink to the specific blog post, not your general blog address.
- Include what you’re hooked on in parentheses after your blog name. Ex: The Red Cottage (antiques)
- Link back to the party from your post so that your readers can come and see what everyone else is talking about today!
- Visit as many of the other participants as possible and leave comments! That’s what a blog party is all about!
- Double-check to make sure your link works and goes to the right page so it doesn’t get deleted! If you come back and see your link is gone, re-read these rules and try again next week.
Mr. Linky is having issues. I can’t get him to work, so let’s try the new MckLinky instead this week.
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I loved Nancy Drew! And now my 9 yr old daughter reads them all the time. And Hardy Boys too.
What a wonderful collection and it brings back many fond childhood reading! I love your blog too! :O) Mary @Boogieboard Cottage
I never read Nancy Drew as a kid! I wish I had. I was a Little House/Anne of Green Gables girl. Meaningful books certainly give a house a soul.
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Just had to raise my hand as well. Loved Nancy, and read everything Nancy. Also enjoyed Trixie (I really just wanted her name, how cool is Trixie?). My daughter is showing signs of being interested in Nancy as well, so I am a happy camper.
I loved Nancy Drew as a child and read everyone of them! My mother [bless her soul!] donated ALL of my ND books to my grade school library once I headed off to college; I have NEVER recovered from her giving my books away!
Yes, I loved Nancy Drew! And a series called The Happy Hollisters about a family of kids who solved mysteries. They were always creeping around some old abandoned house too! I don’t think I still have my ND books : ( but I know I have the others… they’re part of my daughter’s collection now.
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Hi Julia,
I read almost EVERY SINGLE ONE!
Happy Friday!
I LOVED the Nancy Drew books – would get a box every year for Christmas and collected them. Had the kinds with the yellow bindings. Had all of them and then my mom got rid of them when I moved away (I still can’t believe it!) so now I’m recollecting them for my daughter (she’s 7 and has just started reading them). I have to admit I love the nostalgia of reading them myself.
I also have: The Nancy Drew Cookbook (Clues to Good Cooking) by Carolyn Keene, The Girl Sleuth (On The Trail of Nancy Drew, Judy Bolton and Cherry Ames) by Bobbie Ann Mason, and The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys by Carole Kismaric & Marvin Heiferman. All recommended reading for Nancy Drew lovers.
It makes me smile just to think of them – and realize how many others loved them to!
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LOVE Nancy Drew! I read all of them when I was younger. Loved the Bobsey kids as well
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What wonderful memories, I had just about all of these also. Lovely childhood books, wonder if many young people read them today?
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love buying the old ones at the thrift stores.
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I used to love Nancy Drew books. I’d get up early, take the bus to the library and get there when it first opened so I’d have first pick of the books. If I waited too late to get to the library, all the ND books would be checked out.
Now, when I see them at garage sales and such, I buy them. I don’t know why. Good memories I guess.
I enjoyed Nancy Drew, too, but I loved Trixie Belden even more. And she had a lot of houses in her mysteries, too. Come to think of it, so did Judy Bolton, another of my fave teen detectives!
I don’t have all the Nancy Drew books, but I have a good portion of them. Some day when I have the room, I’d like to get them all. And I’m slowly replacing my worn out Trixie Belden books. Now to fill out my sparse Judy Bolton collection.
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Wow, just came across your blog by way of another. Those Nancy Drew books sure bring back memories of a flashlight under the covers when I was supposed to be sleeping and couldn’t put those books down!
LOL! I read them all and never saw the conection to homes before.
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I was never much of a reader growing up, but I remember my friends loving them. Oppss did I just give away my age, lol? Hope you have a great weekend, Julia
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You’ve totally taken me back…I used to love Nancy Drew! I’ll have to start collecting them for my daughter.
Morning T´s last blog ..Hooked on blogs
I loved the Nancy Drew books when I was growing up. I’m pretty sure I read them all.
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I love Nancy Drew as well!!! Some of your faves are my favorites too. I am actually participating in the party this week. Go me! Thanks for hosting!
Carmen´s last blog ..Hooked on Fridays
Oh Julia — Nancy Drew — I read those books over and over again. I even had some that my mother had — ‘way WAY back when! Sometimes I still grab one, still get a kick out of them. Don’t like the modernized versions — doesn’t every girl want a roadster and a housekeeper?
Cass
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I grew up reading Nancy Drew and now my favorite books to read are suspense thrillers! I love a good intriguing storyline!
I still have a large set of my books stored away (the yellow spine hardback ones). My Mom would gift me throughout the year on special occasions with Nancy Drew mysteries.
Thanks for bringing back a great memory for me today!
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Hi Julia~
Great post! I didn’t read many Nancy Drew mysteries but I read most all of the Trixie Belden mystery series. I loved them so much that a few years back I began hunting for them at flea markets and yard sales…I’ve collected at least 25 or so…now to make the time to read them!
Happy weekend!
;-D
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I LOVED Nancy Drew as well as The Hardy Boys growing up. Now my son is reading The Hardy Boys, and he loves them!
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I just wanted to say that as a kid, I read every single Nancy Drew book I could get my hands on. I’m going to visit that website and appreciate your adding the link. What great memories.
I lived across the street from the boat docks on Long Island and I would pretend I was Nancy Drew. I always thought I’d happen to stumble upon a mystery. LOL.
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Julia – check out this article in the New York Times!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/fashion/19drew.html
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Yes — I read these… I loved them. I even had the pleasure of reading the ones my mother owned as a young girl. Before the books had the colorful covered pictures. They were blue spined (sp?) covers with embossed titles. I suppose they had jackets once too. I wish I knew what happened to those books — I’d love to have them just for sentimental reasons.
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This post brought back such good memories. Thanks!
I loved Nancy Drew books…they “took me away”. I remember sitting in the book department at John Wanamaker’s and reading a book while my mother shopped. My kids cannot believe I was left there alone. how times have changed.
One of my friends just got “Nancy Drew’s Guide to Life” for her 60th birthday and it was her favorite gift.
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None of the girls in our family had these and I’m not sure why. We are all readers but somehow missed the ND part of our life.
So glad you still have the ones you enjoyed so much.
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Long time lurker, first time commenter. When I saw Nancy, I had to respond. I’m a huge fan and still have my complete set of yellow-spined Nancy’s, purchased for me for birthdays and Christmases long ago. My mother turned me on to them because she loved them, too. I now collect the dust-jacketed Applewoods and the yellow-spined editions that show different covers from the 60’s-70’s versions I have. I had the pleasure of meeting Mildred Wirt Benson (a.k.a. Carolyn Keene) at a Nancy Drew Conference in Iowa City in 1993. It was a wonderful experience to be among all the other Nancy Drew geeks across the country!
Love reading your blog; it’s one of my favorites! And thank you for bringing Nancy back for all of us to reminisce about.
Growing up, a perfect weekend for me was to go to the library on Thursday, take out five Nancy Drew books, read one Friday night, two on Saturday, and two more on Sunday. Reading those books whetted my appetite for mysteries, an appetite that has continued unabated for fifty years. I was never able to afford to buy any, but was thrilled when friends would lend them to me. They offered a glimpse into the lives of the “haves”, and being a “have not” it was very influential in stoking my desire to succeed. And the best thing about it all was finally learning that the author of many of the books lived in my hometown of Toledo, Ohio. What a thrill to know that she was right there, a few miles away, when she wrote the books that so influenced my young life.
Those Nancy Drew books bring back a TON of sweet memories…thanks for sharing them.
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Thanks for the memories!
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Wow Julia. I came back to go through the links and there is a ton. I hope I can find my way through all of them…
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