Any Hardy Boys fans?

[Rusty Blade]

I grew up reading The Hardy Boys series of books. They were wonderful stories of two very adventurous young brothers who found themselves solving mysteries and going on grand adventures. The books had a remarkable influence on shaping my younger years. I recently pulled a couple of books off my shelf ( The Tower Treasure, The Short Wave Mystery) and read them again. These stories are timeless. Most of my nephews have never heard of the Hardy Boys. Sad really.
I always got a new book in the series on my birthday or at Christmas. A big thrill.

Did you read the Hardy Boys? What influence did these books have on you?

 

[Dave-the-rave]

I doubt they influenced me but I was an avid book worm as a kid and The Hardy Boys books were all read by me, along side The Nancy Drew Mysteries etc. I had a pretty violent childhood and books allowed me to escape and presumably, survive. I guess reading in general influenced me then.

I did enjoy American authors as a kid.

 

[emwolf]

The only Hardy Boys book that I finished was the Detective Handbook, their forensic science guide. I found it fascinating. Before I started reading Hardy's, I got on a Doc Savage kick and read nearly half that series. After that the Boys were far too tame for me.

 

[Brian44t]

I read them all during the 70's. The books were numbered and I seem to remember reading up to about #54. I owned 35 of them until recently. They now reside with my grand daughter who is an avid reader.

 

[Tanuki]

The Hardy Boys helped establish the reading habit for me. The consistency of the style and the knowledge that there was a whole series helped. It made up for the lack of Pokemon to collect. The Hardy Boys books were period pieces even back in the late 50s and and early 60s, but I enjoyed deciphering the old vocabulary and discovering a slightly different cultural landscape.

I developed a lifelong enjoyment of the private eye genre (yay Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Dorothy Sayers, Edmund Crispin, Conan Doyle, Ross Macdonald, and many more).

Oddly, as a kid I also devoured Albert Payson Terhune's dog books, but I am not a dog owner and find that whole Terhune world a bit disturbing in memory.

 

[MrSpeedy]

The Hardy Boys helped establish the reading habit for me. The consistency of the style and the knowledge that there was a whole series helped. ... The Hardy Boys books were period pieces even back in the late 50s and and early 60s, but I enjoyed deciphering the old vocabulary and discovering a slightly different cultural landscape.

I agree with this 100%. They were old even when I was reading them in the late 70's/early 80's. I still have a bunch of the "blue cover" hard cover books as well as a few soft cover newer ones. Let my kids read them when they were young, but they never got much into them (can't say I blame them as there is much better YA books available for them).

I also read a lot of the "Illustrated Classics" which were illustrated and abridged versions of classic novels - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Count of Monte Cristo, Little Women, etc. Another favorite - and I wish I still had them - was Encyclopedia Brown. I fancied myself a smart kid and him using his brains to solve crime appealed to me.

 

[Billski]

I wish I read some of those books, but I am a slow reader.

 

[Ravenonrock]

My older brother was a big fan and collector. What I remember as a young boy was the fantastic artwork on the covers. I loved going through his Hardy Boy collection and comparing the book title to the artwork. They just had a way of drawing you in to the adventure and danger that awaits.

 

[BigFoot]

I read them all from this era 1959-1979. I found the series in an antique store and almost bought them for nostalgic reasons. I read mainly horror now so probably not a lot of influence.

 

[FarmerTan]

I grew up reading The Hardy Boys series of books. They were wonderful stories of two very adventurous young brothers who found themselves solving mysteries and going on grand adventures. The books had a remarkable influence on shaping my younger years. I recently pulled a couple of books off my shelf ( The Tower Treasure, The Short Wave Mystery) and read them again. These stories are timeless. Most of my nephews have never heard of the Hardy Boys. Sad really.
I always got a new book in the series on my birthday or at Christmas. A big thrill.

Did you read the Hardy Boys? What influence did these books have on you?

My son was Homeskooled. We used to read these to him. He would BEG us, lol, to read him a chapter or two as a treat, or before bed.

He's not a big book reader today, though he reads on his phone.

He does love adventure, and solving problems, so maybe the books helped in that way?

 

[Ron R]

I enjoyed the Hardy boys with all the different mystery's they had to solve. Just took a person out of reality and into a fantasy clean cut bunch of youths Joe & Frank Hardy and their buddy Chet Morton.

 

[njpaddy]

What I never realized, until a few years ago, was that the Hardy and Drew books have been re-edited several times over the years to make them more pc for the time period. I loved Hardy Boy books as a kid in the 1950s, along with the Hardy tv serials on The Mickey Mouse Club. When the library didn't have a Hardy Boy book I hadn't read, I took out Nancy Drew. I probably read most of them too. Same style and the stories were just as enjoyable. I also remember reading Bomba the Jungle Boy and Tom Swift books in the 1950s.

 

[BigFoot]

What I never realized, until a few years ago, was that the Hardy and Drew books have been re-edited several times over the years to make them more pc for the time period. I loved Hardy Boy books as a kid in the 1950s, along with the Hardy tv serials on The Mickey Mouse Club. When the library didn't have a Hardy Boy book I hadn't read, I took out Nancy Drew. I probably read most of them too. Same style and the stories were just as enjoyable. I also remember reading Bomba the Jungle Boy and Tom Swift books in the 1950s.

I guess the original writings were quite racist Brian. Not for the time they were written but for the 50's when they edited them.

 

[snowman]

Yes to Hardy Boys. I also read a series of books about three friends called ‘The Three Investigators’. The young teen version of me preferred the Three Investigators.

 

[RookieGuy]

I read them as a boy, from the older 50s editions and the later revisions. I don't remember being influenced by them in particular. I was always much more a Jack London fan, even then. I remember being so proud of myself that I owned and read the entire hardback series. To a young kid, $0.75 a piece for a used book was a splurge. I do remember being very disappointed that there was no Franklin W. Dixon though. I felt cheated somehow.

 

[ouchyfoot]

I read them all as a young boy in the very early sixties.
F W Dixon is a Canadian named Leslie McFarlane and is the father of Hockey Night in Canada Brian McFarlane.
At the time, McFarlane received $100 a book. Yikes! I think it was kind of a part time job.

 

[Ad Astra]

Yes, all of them - including some of the old set, where the boys carried revolvers (yes!)

But even more mind-stretching were the immortal Tom Swift books.

The crew-cutted boy inventor who went into orbit before Nasa. Created the Repelatron, the Diving Seacopter, the Sky Queen, the Jetmarine and so much more.

I have them all, sans one, even today. Anybody has Tom Swift and the Galaxy Ghosts, PM me and I will trade a trove of shaving gear for it.


AA

 

[elswood]

I read them all as a young boy in the very early sixties.
F W Dixon is a Canadian named Leslie McFarlane and is the father of Hockey Night in Canada Brian McFarlane.
At the time, McFarlane received $100 a book. Yikes! I think it was kind of a part time job.

That's a neat bit of trivia. I read most if not all the books in the early to mid 70s and watched HNIC every Saturday and never heard this.

 

[MichWR]

I watched the TV show!

 

[DocPapi]

Yep, all of them I could find when I was a kid. As someone else mentioned, they were numbered, and I'm sure I read every one of them into the fifties or more. Owned most of them, but when I was in college my folks moved and sold most of my stuff at a garage sale. Along with my collection of Hardy Boys mysteries also went a bunch of Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, and even the Bobbsey Twins. Not to mention a bunch of Elvis LPs. Grrrr.