The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => History => Topic started by: jay-ell on January 16, 2004, 04:56:24 pm
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Nate Small reminded me of when I was young and would read the Three Investigators because I was too cool for the Hardy Boys
Oh, man, I thought I was the only kid who read these, but there's a whole website (http://www.threeinvestigators.com/GG.html) devoted to these books. Several (http://www.tunneltwo.com/secrets/), in fact.
Did enough people read these books to warrant a split?
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My daughter just found and old one of mine and read it. Now she wants more.
She's also working on the completing the Nancy Drew series. Wow. Nancy's like the anti-Nate.
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I read three investigators. Much more interesting then the Hardy Boys.
When I was like, 6 or something, I read these chapter books about the Bobbsey Twins. Anyone else experience that madness?
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Sounds like enough for a split to me.
I inherited my brother's copies of these books when my parents realized he didn't actually read. I had almost a complete set, I think I was missing about a half-dozen titles but the majority of them were first printings. In fact, the older ones might have originally been my uncles', since my brother was born in '69 and my uncle was about 15 at the time. He would have been the right age to have purchased them when they came out in '64.
I think I still have them somewhere; I'll have to see what I can do about completing my set before I have kids of my own. They're great books.
Edit: PS HARDY BOYS BITE DICK
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When I was like, 6 or something, I read these chapter books about the Bobbsey Twins. Anyone else experience that madness?
I had only ever heard of the Bobbsey Twins as a cultural reference denoting inoffensive edutainment for girls, e.g. I can't believe this trash; whatever happened to the Bobbsey Twins
Working at the Public Library and having just completed a course in Literature for Youth I can assure you that there are like hundreds of chapter book series for girls and that they are all just retarded.
I read The Great Brain books and Encyclopedia Brown as a kid.
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Oh holy crap, Encyclopedia Brown! Big fan.
I think Henry Reed was my all time favorite, though. Henry and Midge, I guess they're grandparents by now... I loved how he got that swimming pool liner into the hole in the ground.
Good times. Happy times.
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When I was like, 6 or something, I read these chapter books about the Bobbsey Twins. Anyone else experience that madness?
I had only ever heard of the Bobbsey Twins as a cultural reference denoting inoffensive edutainment for girls, e.g. I can't believe this trash; whatever happened to the Bobbsey Twins
Working at the Public Library and having just completed a course in Literature for Youth I can assure you that there are like hundreds of chapter book series for girls and that they are all just retarded.
Curse my parents for giving me books meant for girls. That explains why I eventually actually read Judy Blume books (and why, to this day, I am a complete pervert).
I read The Great Brain books and Encyclopedia Brown as a kid.
Great Hopping Messiah! THe Great Brain! Crap! I LOVED those books! If I am thinking about the same ones, with the three brothers, sometime in America's Past - point of view of the youngest brother? Those were awesome!
Does anyone remember a book series about this incredibly bizarre, eccentric family who had a dog named Zero?
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Encyclopedia Brown totally jumped the shark with his Sports Almanac (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0688038840/qid=1074290232/sr=1-101/ref=sr_1_101/104-8469778-8483164?v=glance&s=books)*.
How bad did a kid have to be to get locked up in that town? Jeebus, there must not have been any kind of truancy officers or Juvy Hall in their county.
Anybody ever see the HBO series based on it? What a terrible, terrible treatment.
*I still went ahead and read it.
EDIT: WHY CAN'T AMAZON SHOW ME MORE THAN TEN RESULTS PER PAGE?
EDIT EDIT: DAMMIT LINKS DON'T SHOW UP AS LINKS
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Anyone else ever read the Encyclopedia Brown parodies (http://www.modernhumorist.com/mh/0004/encyc/index.cfm) over at Modern Humorist?
They're awful and tasteless in some respects, but overall, generally funny. And they have the literary style spot-on.
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And they have the literary style spot-on.
Indeed - and also the illustrations seem almost lifted from pages of the venerable publications. It's been a while since I've seen these - thanks for the reminder!
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Those Encyclopedia Brown parodies made my day. Or my lunch. Or something. Anyway, I loved them.
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I was also all about the Great Brain and Encyclopedia Brown as a wee one. However, as we are also talking about inoffensive chapter books for girls, I spent all of grades one through... three or so reading Baby Sitter's Club (http://www.scholastic.com/annmartin/bsc/) books... dear lord.
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As the one nearest to and therefore, potentially most able to remember your childhood, Andalucia, do kids still read
Henry Huggins books? (Dog named Ribsy, Beatrice and Ramona, etd.)
Frikkin' Judy Blume books?
Robert Cormier? (All I remember is "I am the Cheese") ??
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Henry Huggins books? (Dog named Ribsy, Beatrice and Ramona, etd.)
Frikkin' Judy Blume books?
Ramona Quimby and the rest of the Beverly Cleary books still circulate well. Same deal for the Judy Blume books - in fact, I re-read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Superfudge about a year ago, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well they've held up. I still hand Tales to kids looking for "chapter books"; the thing about great fiction for and about children is that it doesn't painfully date the same way the young adult equivalent would.
Robert Cormier? (All I remember is "I am the Cheese") ??
Do not even get me started on Robert Cormier, or this thread will end up splitting like a motherfucker. Robert Cormier, and I Am The Cheese especially, both deeply informed and completely salvaged my extremely fucked-up childhood. Kids still read him, thank God. Cormier was one of those earthbound saints - for example, Amy's phone number in Cheese was actually his own phone number; he would talk, at length, with kids that called it out of curiosity, about anything, just because he was the unique sort of person that was capable of understanding and caring anyway. RIP.
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In a way, I may be even closer. I have a 12 year old reader in my house. She reads Judy Blume, but at the moment she's somewhere between Superfudge and Wifey. (SIDE NOTE: Wifey was the second dirty book I read in Jr. Hi., shortly after Breakfast of Champions). At the moment, she's more into the mystery side of things -- when she read the lone 3 Investigators book that appeared in a box of my stuff from my parents attic, she wanted more,more,more.
So, let's add a pracitcal dimension to this discussion. Where can I find this series to purchase for my oldest. Cheaply, of course. I don't buy expensive books for myself, so damn if I'm gonna buy pricey pulp for her!
I Am the Cheese is simply a classic. It shouldn't be restricted to the YA ghetto. I ashamed to say I haven't read any other Cormier, but perhaps I will someday.
And Dammit, can't I get a little love for HENRY REED. Come ON people. Next thing you know you'll be dissin' Homer Price. Or godferbid Charlotte's Web.
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And Dammit, can't I get a little love for HENRY REED. Come ON people.
All right, dammit, I admit I read Henry Reed, Inc when I was in first or second grade - it's all a bit of a blur for obscenely complicated reasons. That's the only one that I actively remember - I do know that I devoured them all and quite enjoyed them, but that was around the time I discovered / was obsessed with / was terrified by the prospect of nuclear war, so the non-fiction is really what stuck with me.
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Charlotte's Web.
Finally something I've read. I've had to do some soul searching because I can't remember anything I read when I was young. I know I read more than Spiderman comics and Creem Magazine, but i'll be damned if I can remember very much of it. Your mention of Charlotte's Web sparked my memory though. I also read Stuart Little. I've never even heard of any of the rest of the books mentioned in this thread.
~Paul
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Frikkin' Judy Blume books?
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing represent, yo.
I even read the sequel, SuperFudge.
And then I took off my dress. But seriously, those books kicked ass.
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I even read the sequel, SuperFudge.
But have you read Fudge-a-mania? Or at least I think that was the title of the third one.
Anybody here read the Lemony Snicket books? I bought the first three at Thanksgiving, and had read all 10 in the series (he has 3 more to write, IIRC) by the following week. Fantastic young adult mystery books, with cultural/literary allusions up the ying yang.
And the Three Investigators totally rocked.
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I read a Lemony Snicket while visiting a friend with kids of the Lemony Snicket demographic. I didn't feel compelled to go out and read the rest, but I agree, it was really good.
You should all go read Daniel Pinkwater's books and wish you'd had them to read when you were a kid. He has two collections of them now called something bland like Four Novels and Five Novels but containing wonderful titles like The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death. He has a terrific eye for the pleasures of urban decay (I see his latest book is set in Bayonne, NJ - have to get that one) combined with other dimensions and Mars and interesting things to eat.
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Wait - Daniel Pinkwater, like the NPR commentator Daniel Pinkwater? I knew he wrote kids books, but didn't know he did things for older children. That'd be sweet.
Yes, I am a nerd.
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As the one nearest to and therefore, potentially most able to remember your childhood, Andalucia, do kids still read
Henry Huggins books? (Dog named Ribsy, Beatrice and Ramona, etd.)
Frikkin' Judy Blume books?
Robert Cormier? (All I remember is "I am the Cheese") ??
I totally read the Beatrice and Ramona books, but being the child of, um, progressive? hippie parents, I remember thinking that they had poor representations of gender roles and some sketchy cowboys-and-indians stuff. I was a weird kid. I also read Judy Blume books. Over Christmas my sister and I had a conversation about how confusing we found them as kids, since they're still held up as being these useful hitting-puberty books, but all we had been able to think of on reading them was "What. The. Fuck. is a 'menstrual belt'?"
I also read the Lemony Snicket books a year or two ago, and I totally dug them... they're pretty fun and allusive enough that one can still feel clever reading them.
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My kids liked the Ramona books, but there is a certain amount of culture shock involved. I think the series was started in the early 50's, so things have changed a little since then.
Lemony Snicket is hilarious. Everybody should read at least one or two. Dark, literate, subversive and funny. Our first introduction to them was on tape, read by Tim Curry. He was the perfect reader for the material.
What about S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders, et al) or John Christopher (The White Mountains trilogy)?
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I missed pretty much all of these. Can we get some love for the Phantom Tollbooth or Wayside School?
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I missed pretty much all of these. Can we get some love for the Phantom Tollbooth or Wayside School?
REPRESENT. I annually reread Phantom Tollbooth at the end of every school year; I'm not entirely sure why, but it works for me.
As for other stuff mentioned since last I checked this thread:
Cormier -- I read "I Am the Cheese" a few years ago and now remember virtually nothing from it. Shows me.
The Judy Blume books -- great stuff, very great. (Albeit "Wifey" was a gigantic disappointment; in retrospect, it aged very poorly.)
Daniel Pinkwater -- OH HELL YES. "Lizard Music" was a great and beautiful thing.
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Man, I so don't know any of these books!
But I just have to see if any of the ones I read as a kid got touched by anyone else...
I remember reading some of the Harry Harrison books - Stainless Steel Rat and Spaceship Medic.
I think the book I read when youngest, aside from Winnie the Pooh, would be Rebeccah's World.
Basically I mainly just read non-kids books though.
I was made to read Neuromancer very young by my mother and brother, which suited me.
Oh, and the other one I remember from when I was very young was reading Hitch-Hiker's Guide.
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Daniel Pinkwater -- OH HELL YES.
This perfectly expresses how I feel about him.
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I just re-read the Stainless Steel Rat books about 3 months ago. Great fun -- that's what reading for entertainment is all about.
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Daniel Pinkwater -- OH HELL YES.
This perfectly expresses how I feel about him.
I heard a Daniel Pinkwater commentary this past week on NPR and he said something about someone's kids liking his books which finally convinced me that he was the same guy, which is bizarre to me. But I LOVED Lizard Music, and also wasn't there a book about a giant chicken in Hackensack?
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I heard a Daniel Pinkwater commentary this past week on NPR and he said something about someone's kids liking his books which finally convinced me that he was the same guy, which is bizarre to me. But I LOVED Lizard Music, and also wasn't there a book about a giant chicken in Hackensack?
I forget the exact title, but the giant chicken was in Hoboken. (EDIT: "The Hoboken Chicken Emergency.") Which reminds me of another book, "Chicken Trek" -- not by Pinkwater, but similar in theme and style -- about a kid who traveled across America attempting to eat at every restaurant in a fried-chicken chain in order to win a contest.
Now I wonder if I was hallucinating it.
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All things Pinkwater including a complete book list
http://www.pinkwater.com/indexh.html
More Hoboken and chicken related action in the book that is about to come out, it appears.
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When I was a kid, I read the Three Investigators, Encyclopedia Brown (great part about Encyclopedia: every book used the same similies and analogies), Homer Price, SOME Hardy Boys...I was in love with Pinkwater. Umm, what else. Did anyone else ever read the Power Boys? They're these cheap Hardy Bros. knockoffs that mcan only be found in antique malls, where, as luck would have it, I spent a lot of time as a child.
Just like everyone else, I read all of Douglas Adams when I was eight. I didn't understand half of it, except I knew I liked it a lot and wanted more.
Dude, has anyone read Judy Blumes adult books? Wow, man. Wow.
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I heard a Daniel Pinkwater commentary this past week on NPR and he said something about someone's kids liking his books which finally convinced me that he was the same guy, which is bizarre to me. But I LOVED Lizard Music, and also wasn't there a book about a giant chicken in Hackensack?
I forget the exact title, but the giant chicken was in Hoboken. (EDIT: "The Hoboken Chicken Emergency.") Which reminds me of another book, "Chicken Trek" -- not by Pinkwater, but similar in theme and style -- about a kid who traveled across America attempting to eat at every restaurant in a fried-chicken chain in order to win a contest.
Now I wonder if I was hallucinating it.
This post made me think of the book "Freckle Juice" for some reason.
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I read all of Douglas Adams when I was eight. I didn't understand half of it, except I knew I liked it a lot and wanted more.
I never read hg2g until I was in a trivia contest in HS and literally everybody knew the answer to the ultimate qustion of life, the universe, and everything except me. It was a sad, sad day in my summer camp experience.
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It was a sad, sad day in my summer camp experience.
Most days were sad, sad days in my summer camp experience.