The Wonderful World of Books
© Mary M. Alward
My introduction to Nancy was in the book, The Secret of the Old Clock. I was delighted with this young girl's escapades--an amateur detective. It made me dream of solving mysteries.
My favorite Nancy Drew books were, The Mystery of the Tolling Bell, The Secret of Larkspur Lane, The Mystery of the Moss Covered Mansion, and The Mystery in the Old Attic. These were just some of the Nancy Drew books that I read. I collected all 50 of the original titles.
I read just about anything I could lay my hands on. Black Beauty, The Girl of the Limberlost, My Friend Flicka, Wuthering Heights, Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Connie Carl at Rainbow Ranch, Girls of Silverspur Ranch, and The Penny Parker Mystery series. Many of these books were written years before I was born and had belonged to my aunts. We seldom had the money to buy books and our school library included only a few books in shelves along the wall - maybe 20 to 30 books in all. We had no fancy library as schools do today. I was always on the lookout for a good book.
When I read, I got so caught up in the book that I would find myself inside it, virtually living the story as it progressed. Even today, I read many books. For a while I can escape the every day cares of the world and live within the covers of a good book. Many years ago, I realized that not all people could do this. I also learned, to my horror, that not everyone loved to read. While Dad was a reader, Mom was not. I could not understand anyone not wanting to travel to far away lands or experience a wilderness trail in the Old West. I have traveled the world over, rescued hurt animals, fought bad guys and even panned for gold and traveled back in time between the covers of a book. When my first grandchild was born, I vowed he would learn to love books and that he, too, would be able to escape to other worlds within the covers of a book. Today, nine years later, Brandon not only loves reading, he has had a poem accepted for an anthology with Young Writer's of Canada.
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