Mystery Books

Believe it or not, once upon a time, I used to not really like to read. It was a mystery series that got me hooked.

I forget how old I was, but I had to have been pretty young. I have a vague recollection of my grandmother giving me the first four books in a series for Christmas one year. But instead of reading them, I just kind of set them aside and didn't even think about it until my mom starting pestering me if I had read them yet.

So I got the first one out and started reading The Boxcar Children series, book one: The Boxcar Children. This one actually had less mystery in it than the other books, but from then on I was caught. I asked for more, and more, and more of the books in the series, which amounted to over a hundred plus several "special" books.

When I started running out of those books to read and reread, I somehow got started on Nancy Drew. I read and read and read some more until I finally began running out of those too.

Then Mom pulled out a whole box of mystery books she had read as a kid - a lot of older copies of the Nancy Drew books, but also an entirely new series for me: Trixie Beldon.

I forget how I started to branch out from mystery into fantasy. Maybe it had something to do with seeing a movie, then finding out there was a book it had been based on. After that single book, I read more of that author's works. Maybe something like that.

Anyways, just because I now like a lot of fantasy, that doesn't mean I've moved on from my first love. My mom has a more adult series that's categorized as something like murder mystery that I've read. And I've also found miracle authors who can do wonders with their characters to get me fully hooked onto their mystery series too. Ever hear of the O'Malleys? The Mysterious Benedict Society? What about Pseudonymous Bosch? Works of genius, I assure you.

Well, thank you for listening to me blather on. Mystery books are wonderful. Last thing I'mma say.