Garage sale scavenging - Hardy Boys books

[Montblack]

Posted this link in a different thread. Then I started looking through the
books...

(Volume 9) The Great Airport Mystery
(Volume 37) The Ghost at Skeleton Rock

http://hardyboys.bobfinnan.com/hbart.htm
(Hardy Boys book covers)

Anyone have one of these on their aviation bookshelf?

I could do the easy hunt at eBay, but garage sale scavenging is much more
fun :-)


Montblack

[Ron Natalie]

Montblack wrote:
> Posted this link in a different thread. Then I started looking through
> the books...
>
> (Volume 9) The Great Airport Mystery
> (Volume 37) The Ghost at Skeleton Rock
>

I don't have any today but I remember reading these as kids.
The boys were pilots and in one book I remember they even added
seaplane ratings.

[Robert M. Gary]

My son is 9 and has read 8 of these books (including "The Great Airport
Mystery"). He thought it was pretty funny that that guy tried to land
in the street. My son has about 600 hours of air time with me.

-Robert

[[email protected]]

Robert M. Gary wrote:
> My son is 9 and has read 8 of these books (including "The Great
Airport
> Mystery"). He thought it was pretty funny that that guy tried to land
> in the street. My son has about 600 hours of air time with me.
>

600 hrs. and you haven't yet shown him how to land in the street?
What are you waiting for :-)

John Galban=====>N4BQ (PA28-180)

[[email protected]]

wrote:
> Robert M. Gary wrote:
> > My son is 9 and has read 8 of these books (including "The Great
> Airport
> > Mystery"). He thought it was pretty funny that that guy tried to
land
> > in the street. My son has about 600 hours of air time with me.


You guys with young sons at home should try to find those Hardy
Boys books at used-book stores. I started picking them up when our son
was about seven, and he ate them up as fast as I could find them. Over
a period of about three years we acquired the whole range of the
original series, about 56 books, and because he read so much his school
grades were high and he still loves reading. He'll be 19 soon. Long
past the Hardy Boys stage, but well into the sort of literature usually
read by middle agers. He knows more about the World Wars, for instance,
than most adults, and has read travelogues written by people who have
explored the world. When he needs info about something he's building,
he knows where to find it.
When I was a kid my teachers said that the Hardy Boys books were
cheap fiction, followed a predictable plot, and weren't worth reading.
So I didn't read them. When I read a couple of my son's books I was
surprised at the amount of useful information in them, things a young
fella should know.
Yes, you can land in the street, but don't let the sherriff see
it. The Hardy Boys' cops are just a little unreal, probably the weakest
characters in the books.

Dan

[[email protected]]

In rec.aviation.owning Richard Riley > wrote:
> On 11 Mar 2005 07:22:04 -0800, wrote:

<snip>

> Of course, I wanted the last episode of "Murder, She Wrote" to reveal
> that it was Jessica that killed those people every week.

Me too, but I wanted Colombo to nail her with "just a couple more
questions" about why someone died every time she showed up someplace.

--
Jim Pennino

Remove -spam-sux to reply.

[bk]

I read those Hardy Boys books as a child and started reading a few of
them again when my son left them lying around these past few years. I
found the vocabulary to be more interesting than in many current
similar books. I also found the stories did not hold my interest as an
adult, even though I thought they were terrific as a child. The new
Hardy Boys books are much different than the older ones. (I gather
Frank Dixon never existed - the books were ghost written.)


wrote:
> wrote:
> > Robert M. Gary wrote:
> > > My son is 9 and has read 8 of these books (including "The Great
> > Airport
> > > Mystery"). He thought it was pretty funny that that guy tried to

[ShawnD2112]

How about Biggles? I'd never heard of the character until coming here to
the UK but he's the childhood hero cum swashbuckling pilot that is
synonymous with flying over here. Every pilot is known as "Biggles" to
non-pilots.

Written between the wars, the series of childhood fiction follow the
adventures, back in the days when people still had adventures in the
uncharted parts of the Empire, of Pilot Officer Biggles in his various
flying machines around the globe. He was a WW1 fighter pilot hero who left
the service after war and went on to do much more interesting things like
discovering Inca treasure while in South America with a flying boat! I've
read a couple as an adult and they're fantastic yarns of the old-world sort.
Perfect for a kid to get lost in for hours at a time! I'd have devoured
them when I were a lad.

Shawn

> wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> wrote:
>> Robert M. Gary wrote:
>> > My son is 9 and has read 8 of these books (including "The Great
>> Airport
>> > Mystery"). He thought it was pretty funny that that guy tried to
> land
>> > in the street. My son has about 600 hours of air time with me.
>
>
> You guys with young sons at home should try to find those Hardy
> Boys books at used-book stores. I started picking them up when our son
> was about seven, and he ate them up as fast as I could find them. Over
> a period of about three years we acquired the whole range of the
> original series, about 56 books, and because he read so much his school
> grades were high and he still loves reading. He'll be 19 soon. Long
> past the Hardy Boys stage, but well into the sort of literature usually
> read by middle agers. He knows more about the World Wars, for instance,
> than most adults, and has read travelogues written by people who have
> explored the world. When he needs info about something he's building,
> he knows where to find it.
> When I was a kid my teachers said that the Hardy Boys books were
> cheap fiction, followed a predictable plot, and weren't worth reading.
> So I didn't read them. When I read a couple of my son's books I was
> surprised at the amount of useful information in them, things a young
> fella should know.
> Yes, you can land in the street, but don't let the sherriff see
> it. The Hardy Boys' cops are just a little unreal, probably the weakest
> characters in the books.
>
> Dan
>

[[email protected]]

There's another series of book that may not be familiar to U.S.
readers. They're the Bartholomew Bandy books, written by Donald Jack,
and are aimed at adults. An absolute hoot! The real-life Billy Bishop,
Canadian WWI ace, seems to be the inspiration for the character, but
unlike Bishop he is a klutz for whom everything turns out to his
credit. Similar to the luck of Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther
movies. The first four or five Bandy books are especially funny.
Used-book stores usually have a few around. Might find them on the
'net, too. Don't read them if you have a weak bladder...

Dan

[[email protected]]

On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 16:39:07 -0600, "Montblack"
> wrote:

>Posted this link in a different thread. Then I started looking through the
>books...
>
>(Volume 9) The Great Airport Mystery
>(Volume 37) The Ghost at Skeleton Rock
>
>http://hardyboys.bobfinnan.com/hbart.htm
>(Hardy Boys book covers)
>
>Anyone have one of these on their aviation bookshelf?
>
>I could do the easy hunt at eBay, but garage sale scavenging is much more
>fun :-)
>
>
>Montblack

The first "Nancy Drew" author was a GA pilot.

http://ils.unc.edu/nancy.drew/benson.html

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2002105290069

Don't know if any of her characters were pilots, however.

I was working at a local airport years ago when a wet-behind-the-ears
flight instructor gave her bad marks on a biennial.

TC

[StellaStarr]

wrote:
> On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 16:39:07 -0600, "Montblack"
>
>>
>>I could do the easy hunt at eBay, but garage sale scavenging is much more
>>fun :-)
>>
>>
>>Montblack
>
>
> The first "Nancy Drew" author was a GA pilot.
>

Jackpot!
Was wandering in a great dusty old bookstore today near the U of
Minnesota and I found, not one of the Hardy Boys, but a book titled
"The Boy Aviators in Record Flight, or the Rival Aeroplane," copyright
1910 by one "Captain Wilbur Lawton."

A front page lists half a dozen titles including "The Boy Aviators in
Secret Service, or Working with Wireless." I paid about 7 bucks for
this, in fine condition -- the joys of book-hunting.

Best of all, a link suggests you can read a couple from this series
online (O yea, I have that many hours MORE to spend on my butt in front
of a computer), or download them via something called Project Gutenberg.
Probably so old the copyright's expired, I'd guess...

http://manybooks.net/titles/lawtoncaetext04tbvfr10.html