Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Salvage Yard

Enbrethiliel's continued reviews of The Babysitters Club books has me all nostalgic. No, no, I never read The Babysitters Club, though there were plenty of copies lying around the house belonging to sisters. Though that in itself would be a fond enough memory.

No, just that it brings to mind my immersion in the "Alfred Hitchcock" Three Investigators books! Oh, dear Lord, those years beginning with grade five: The Secret of The Crooked Cat:


I actually picked this book to do a book report on (remember those?) and can still remember the point at which it was no longer a school task, scarily, not even remotely, but discovered that I could actually follow a story - on my own - and that I actually enjoyed it, way too much, as I started reading all the other Three Investigators books.

Those summer nights in bed, reading, but there in their secret headquarters hidden in the salvage yard in southern California with its secret entrances...Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, Bob Andrews...

Not much else to say there. And then Father Brown came along, later...

Image source: http://threeinvestigatorsbooks.homestead.com/Crookedcat.html

3 comments:

Enbrethiliel said...

+JMJ+

You've never read the BSC books??? Why not? =P

I must admit, though, that I'd never come across the Three Investigators books . . . until now.

Ah, that magical moment when a routine task turns into a real pleasure! We may be the most literate generation which ever lived, in the most book-oriented culture that ever was, but not all readers are so lucky!

Paul Stilwell said...

That gives me pause for thought. I wonder how much just plain old distraction has to do with it. Literacy, or the continued enjoyment of it, is a delicate thing, so easily broken in its germination.

To your question...LOL.

I will say this: I was a fan of Mary Poppins (the movie) as a kid. Of course, if I had ever admitted this to my friends my life would have been forfeit.

Enbrethiliel said...

+JMJ+

There's nothing like distraction to kill reading, I think--especially digital distraction. Some people still take to books the way a duck takes to water, but for everyone else, I think a lazy afternoon (or an early night), a quiet spot, and as few distractions as possible are essential. I think I was lucky to have had both a natural love for books and a great supply of lazy afternoons.