Posted on 08/14/2025 5:48:57 PM PDT by kawhill
I then asked him if he also read the Hardy Boys as a kid, and he certainly did. He then asked me how many of these books were published, and when I researched this, I discovered that the first Hardy Boys books came out in 1927, and ended their run after 190 titles in 2005.
(Excerpt) Read more at ecpubliclibrary.info ...
Yes! I liked those books, but didn’t read a lot of them and don’t remember them well.
What I do remember is reading a lot of James Bond books when I was in 5th & 6th grade. Even at the time I realized they were age inappropriate for me! But I did enjoy them and I was a big reader so I just dealt with the adult stuff.
Always figured someone had donated a bunch of paperbacks to the school and they just threw them into the classroom with no vetting.
This was a NYC public school in the late 60s.
That many?! Wow! I only read a few. I also read “The Happy Hollisters.”
I liked hardy and ND but got turned onto another series of books called Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators.
Very similar in concept
Our sons were born in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. My husband collected old boys books, so our sons read the first edition Hardy Boys books. The early ones were written for an older age group than the more modern ones, so they were longer and had more advanced vocabulary. When they were younger, I’d read a chapter or two to them at bedtime. I remember having to look up the word “sough.” I thought it funny that I learned a new word in a Hardy Boys book.
The first series of Tom Swift books were titles like Tom Swift and His Motor Boat, His Electric Rifle, Wireless Message...
The kids also read the Baseball Joe books and the Clair Bee Chip Hilton books.
I’ve read most father’s Hardy Boys books. They have been rewritten with the same titles and different plots at least once. I prefer the first printings to the rewrites of the 1960s.
Anyone remember The Power Boys series?
The original Tom Swift books can be found on the Project Gutenberg web site. You can even download audio versions.
Loved Nancy Drew, I’m a female too.
“ I personally preferred the Tom Swift books…”
Me too. I had all of them when I was young. Wish I still did.
L
“Gold doubloons and pieces of 8, all belonged to Applegate. The coast is clear but listen, wait”.... The only part of the song preceding the episodes of ?Hardy Boys mystery about some old man named Applegate. LOVED them, along with Spin and Marty.
Doc Savage was awesome, his gold eyes and the “trilling sound” he made when deep in thought. Those things, and of course Monk, a short and stout looking guy with brains.
I read them, but my favorite was Tom Swift Jr.
I don’t remember The Power Boys, but I remember the Walton boys.
They did original series, classics as well as a bunch of TV spinoffs. They also did reprints of some of the Stratemeyer Syndicate books.
I remember the Hardy Boys TV series that was on the air for a couple of seasons.
yep, but the only short story I remember was the one where he proved that some kid was not a thief cause he was left handed and the stolen stuff was found in the right pocket of his pants inside of a gym locker.
he argued that if that kid had stolen the stuff it would have been in the left pocket cause that would be where he would naturally have put it, and thief did not realize that
on a related note, I would encourage everyone to go to the site
and listen to what I think is the longest running radio mystery theater.
I still hear that creaking door in my nightmares, before the Shadow finds what evil lies in the hearts of men
I remember that one from the grade school library. Read it when I was 9 or 10.
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