Garage sale scavenging - Hardy Boys books

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

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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

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