Finding My Blog Reviews

Many of you are completely unaware of how many series books I have already reviewed in this blog.  I have already done the following.

Adventurous Allens
Biff Brewster
Billie Bradley
Brad Forrest
Brains Benton
Bret King
Cherry Ames
Hardy Boys #1-190
Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers (in progress)
Hardy Boys Adventures (coming soon)
Jenny Dean (coming soon)
Ken Holt
Lance Todd
Linda Carlton
Mill Creek Irregulars
Nancy Drew #1-175
Nancy Drew Girl Detective
Nancy Drew Diaries
Phyllis Whitney
Power Boys
Rick Brant
Roger Baxter
Sandy Steele
Secret Circle Mysteries
Three Investigators
Tom Quest
Troy Nesbit
Wynn and Lonny (coming soon)

I have also partially reviewed many other series.  So, how can you find the reviews? It's quite simple.  Blogger has something called "labels."  For each post, I use one label. My label for my reviews of Nancy Drew #1-56 is "Nancy Drew Reviews."  My label for my Nancy Drew Girl Detective reviews is "Nancy Drew Girl Detective Reviews."

To find the labels, scroll down the right side of any page in the blog.  Click on the label that interests you.  For labels that have many posts, I have also discovered that many of you are unaware of how to find the older posts.  For instance, when the "Nancy Drew Reviews" label is selected, the review for #56 shows at the top of the page, and the last review at the bottom is for #38.  But that's not all of them.

In the lower right underneath the review for #38 is a link titled "Older Posts."

I highlighted the link in the above image.  That link can be selected to find the reviews for Nancy Drew #1-37.

I use labels correctly, unlike many bloggers.  First, let's distinguish between tags, labels, and categories.  In Word Press, blog authors use both tags and categories.  The tags are for search engine optimization.  The categories are used to organize posts so that readers can find them.

In Blogger, which is what I use, we only have labels.  Unfortunately, many Blogger users think labels are for search engine optimization, so they place a bunch of labels on each post, labels that don't help the reader find anything.  Instead, the blog writer should use one label per post.

Rather than use an actual blog, I am going to make up an example.  Let's say that a blog writer has published a review of the revised text of Nancy Drew #18, Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion.  An incorrect use of labels would be to use words and phrases like "exploding oranges," "NASA," and "Florida."  Remember, labels are for locating posts.  Nobody will try to find all Nancy Drew posts that mention "exploding oranges," especially since only one post will mention them!

When I was reading the Hardy Boys Digests, I wanted to read reviews of each title.  I found a blog that has some reviews, but that blog publishes infrequently and not in order by title.  This wouldn't have been a problem if the blog used the labels properly. The blog is hosted by Blogger, but the blog owner uses the labels for keyword spamming.  I cannot figure out which books this person has reviewed without scrolling through the entire blog.  I am not going to bother trying to find the reviews.  The blog has lost my views since the labels are no help at all.

The last time I brought up this topic, I was told that I was wrong.  Here are some articles that explain that the labels are to be used to organize content by category, not for search engine optimization or for keyword spamming.

What Exactly Are Blog Labels or Categories?
What are labels and how to use labels in Blogger to sort your content?

There are numerous other articles that say the same thing about the proper use of the labels for blogs.  If you have any kind of blog, I strongly encourage you to change the labels into categories instead of random keywords.  I don't read blogs very often, because most that interest me cannot be navigated.

This blog now has 1,267 posts.  Nobody would be able to find anything if I had random keywords as my labels.  The blog would be a chaotic mess.

My goal is to make it easy for you to find what you want to read.  I took the same approach when I created my website, Series Books for Girls.  I tried to avoid the issues that plague many sites.  Several major series book websites have an unclear hierarchy, and I have to use Google to find where certain information is located.  It shouldn't be that hard.  I tried to create an obvious hierarchy.  As a precaution, I also created a site map so that readers could find every page on the site regardless of whether my hierarchy makes sense to them.  Many sites don't have a site map.

The bottom line is that websites and blogs must make information easy for readers to find.

A Note about Upcoming Reviews

You will find that some of my upcoming reviews will be extremely brief.

If I say that I enjoyed the book but do not make any other comments, I did enjoy the book, but I didn't feel like writing anything.  That happens to me sometimes.  It's purely a motivational issue and has nothing to do with how much I enjoyed the book.

In December 2012, I wrote, "I cannot force myself to write up a review of a book when the thoughts do not come easily.  That's when writing for this blog seems like writing a required book report for school.  That's no fun and why sometimes my blog posts become infrequent.  I can only write something when I am in the mood and it comes easily to me.  Otherwise, I cannot do it."

In several instances prior to that post, I allowed myself to be distracted from continuing my reading and reviews because I thought that I must write up a proper review of every single title.  Reviews sometimes went on a hiatus for several months before I forced myself back.  In the case of Grace Harlowe, it's been 4 1/2 years, and I still haven't gotten back to them.

If I don't feel like writing much in a review, then I don't.  This is certainly the case for a number of upcoming reviews.  I will soon be reviewing the Secret Circle Mysteries, ten of the Ted Wilford books, and the Phyllis Whitney juvenile mysteries.  While most of the reviews will be of typical length, you will notice that some from each set will be extremely brief with little information, leaving you wishing that I had written more.  If I had tried to force myself, I would have quit the reviews.  While you might not like how lacking some of the reviews will be, at least I do keep going so that better reviews will come along.

What I Enjoy in a Book

In the last few years, I have realized that books have to fit very specific guidelines in order for me to be able to enjoy them.  First and foremost, the book has to grab my attention quickly, within the first two to three pages.  I can give a book a little bit more time, but it has to appeal to me rather fast, or I will give up.  I didn't use to be that way.

I read purely for recreation, and I'm not interested in thinking hard.  Much of this has to do with having an underactive thyroid.  I was not diagnosed until July 2014, but I am certain that I have had this condition my entire adult life.  The condition escalated in the last five to seven years to where I finally realized that something was wrong.  

I mention this because an underactive thyroid causes a lack of motivation and problems with memory.  When reading books, this has made me impatient with convoluted plots and stories that have too many characters.  I don't have it in me to want to keep track of detailed plots, especially if the plot is slow to develop.  I do still have the ability to do so, but long-term mental and physical tiredness going back five to seven years has caused me not to want to put forth the extra effort.  Reading should be fun, not a tiresome chore.  I often read when I am tired, so my reading has to be enjoyable and effortless.

I tried reading a book called Gods of Manhattan earlier this year.  The synopsis makes the book sound exactly like something I would enjoy.  Unfortunately, the author takes a very mysterious approach in the opening chapter that makes the story too vague and difficult to figure out.  I abandoned the book after around six to ten pages and read something else.

I dislike books that are set in alternate universes that are hard to visualize.  I don't have the patience to try to visualize an alternate reality that is totally different from our world.  I read the first book in the series Keys to the Kingdom and enjoyed it.  Part of the first book is set in our world, so it wasn't too hard to follow.  By the second book, the events became too hard to visualize, and I ended up abandoning the series.

As far as strangeness, Keys to the Kingdom reminds me of Alice in Wonderland, which is a book I have never read.  I tried reading a little of Alice in Wonderland one time since so many people love it, but I quickly abandoned it.  I don't enjoy that kind of book.

I dislike dialect in books.  I can be okay with it in small doses and when I don't have to think hard to figure it out.  I can think of a couple of instances where I found it amusing.  More often, I find it annoying.  In one case, I refused to read a series because of the dialect.  That happened when I tried to read an early Bobbsey Twins book.  Sam and Dinah speak in dialect, and the dialect in the book was inconsistent from one page to the next.  Sam could pronounce a word correctly on one page, but he couldn't on the next.  I put down the book in disgust.

Racial stereotypes generally do not bother me.  This is because I view them in the context of history.  We can learn from the attitudes of the people who came before us, and the inappropriate beliefs from the past teach us how not to behave in the present.

I now have a strong bias against books printed by Christian publishers.  This isn't fair, but it's because of how stupid one book seemed to me.  I can't recall the book or series, but the girls in it kept exclaiming "Ohmigoodness!" over and over throughout the opening pages.  The exclamation was overused.  Who on earth talks like that?  I know why the author used that expression, but it was too stupid and fake for my taste.  I got rid of the book, and unfortunately, I now refuse to try books by Christian publishers.

I dislike prologues.  The prologues are usually mysterious and vague and do not name the characters that appear in them.  This is supposed to pique the reader's interest, but it typically annoys me.  I want to know who the people are and why they are important.  I don't like games being played by the author.  I also dislike epilogues.  The most appalling epilogue I have ever read is the one at the end of the final Harry Potter book.  I can think of many other epilogues that are also substandard, although not as aggravating as that one.

I love exciting books, but I can also greatly enjoy slow-moving books so long as I enjoy the writing style.  The Beverly Gray series is very exciting with suspenseful and dangerous events occurring almost constantly as Beverly travels around the world.  In contrast, the early Trixie Belden books by Julie Campbell detail what are often rather mundane events that occur near Trixie's home; yet, the events in those books are just as thrilling to me as Beverly Gray's wild adventures.  If the text is written well, any kind of event can be thrilling and keep the reader engaged.

The key to a good book is that the text must flow well from one paragraph to the next and must be interesting.  This is hard to explain and is purely subjective, since text that flows well for me might not for another reader.  Whatever flows well for each reader is what keeps all of us reading books.

People Selling Books or Requesting Book Valuation

I rather often have people contact me wanting me to assess the value of their books.  They often spend lots of time typing up a long list of what they have.  Most often, they have Nancy Drew books.  One recent message went like this. 

Hello...you look like an expert on Nancy Drew. Could you help me? I have 44 books.

The Bungalow Mystery 1930​ /25 Chapters​ Original text/First Printing
The Bungalow Mystery 1930​ /25 Chapters​ Original text​ ​most likely printed in 1955
​The Mystery at Lilac Inn 1930​​/25 Chapters/Original Text/Most likely Printed in 1953​
The Secret of Red Gate Farm 1931​ 25 Chapters/Original Text/ Most likely printed in 1955/56 With Dust jacket​
The Secret at Shadow Ranch 1931​ 25 Chapters/Original Text/ First Printing​
Nancy's Mysterious Letter 1932 ​25 Chapters/Original Text/ Most likely printed in 1954​
​The Clue in The Diary 1932​​ 25 Chapters/original text first printing ​
The Password to Larkspur Lane 1933​25 Chapters/Original text/First Printing​
The Password to Larkspur Lane 1933 (c​olored front cover) 25 Chapters/Original Text/Printed 1964/65 (aprox)​ (I can only fit some of them here) Can you help me value them. I need to sell them Thank you

I received three other messages with the rest of the books listed.  I felt bad that this person spent so much time compiling a list which did not tell me anything.  I had very little idea of what this person had to offer since I need to see the books to assess age, condition, and value.  I'm not going to take the time to ask questions or even ask for photographs. 

Speaking of photographs...

These people obviously haven't read my series of posts, "Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew."  In that series of posts, I detail all of the information that can be gleaned just by looking at a photograph of a Nancy Drew book.  The copyright page information is normally not necessary, nor is the number of chapters.  Here are two posts that will help explain what I mean.

Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #3
Buyer Confusion on Nancy Drew #9

My point?  Don't type up a long list of titles, copyright dates, and number of chapters.  Take a photograph of the books with the spines facing out.  That's all I need.  I can give an approximate value by looking at a group photo of books with the spines facing out.

Even better, just go ahead and search eBay for the books you have, then click on "sold" items in the left sidebar.  It's really that simple.  What the books sell for is what they are worth.

I also often have people contact me wanting to know if I wish to purchase their books.  Here are two examples of messages that I have received in recent months.

I have a number of old Erle Stanley Gardner books (Perry Mason and others) as well as Dana Girl Series books that I am looking to get out of my basement. I would be happy to send you a list if you are interested in seeing specific titles. Thank you.

Hello! I enjoyed looking through your site. Do you purchase books in this era?

I ignored both of these messages.  They weren't worth the trouble.

Another recent message read, "I have eighteen books from the Beverly Gray series. Do you have any interest in them?"  Of course, that person could have had Beverly Gray at the World's Fair with a perfect dust jacket, but it's rather unlikely.  Once again, I didn't want to take the time to try to figure out what they have.  Besides, most of the Beverly Gray books are not currently worth much.  I'm not purchasing any to sell at this time.  I responded, "Only if you want to sell them for about the cost of postage. You'd probably get more selling them in an eBay auction. I don't need any of them for myself, and others who are building a set would be willing to pay more."  And that is the truth.  You don't want to offer me your books unless you want to sell them cheap.

I had someone else want to sell me a very scarce book.  She wanted me to make an offer.  I'm not sure why saying what one wants for a book is so difficult.  I replied upfront that I wouldn't offer much and that I would rather the book be sold to someone who needs it.  She persisted, so I made an offer since it is scarce (despite not really wanting the book) of what I could pay and be able to sell it at a narrow profit.  She was disappointed in my offer and finally told me what she wanted, which is about the current market value.  I have to pay less than what a book is worth in order to sell it to get my money back.  I can't pay the current fair market value for books I already own.

Here's another message I received from someone else.

I have 9 Ken Holt by Bruce Campbell books, 12 Rick Brant by John Blaine & Science Projects by John Blain. I also have 4 single books: Rover Boys at School, Mystery of the Timber Giant, Hardy Boys House on the Cliff & Divers Down. All are in good to excellent condition.
I tried to write more descriptions, but ebay would not send the message because I included my email address. But they deleted the message that I had taken so long to write!
If you know of anyone or if you are interested in buying the lot of them, please contact me.
I do not have the time or patience to sell them myself individually.

This message sounded promising so I gave suggestions on how this person could get a message to me.  I couldn't give an email, either, for the same reason that this person couldn't, but I gave some options. I never heard back. I don't understand why I was contacted, then the person didn't follow through.  It could be that they figured out the value of Rick Brant's Science Projects and reconsidered offering the books to me.  I can't say that I blame them.

I am receiving requests for me to buy books around once each week.  As mentioned, I often ignore the messages.  Whenever I engage them, I find that I end up wasting my time because they want more for the books than I wish to pay.

Most of these people contact me because they don't want to sell on eBay.  They say that it's a hassle.  Somehow, they think that I will happily take whichever random books they have.

I suggested that one person utilize the series books groups on Facebook.  That person doesn't use Facebook.  I get it; many people don't use Facebook due to privacy issues or because they think Facebook is stupid.

I have a Facebook account, but I have very little personal information in it.  I do have my correct birth date entered, but Facebook wouldn't know if someone entered a fake date.  If you don't trust Facebook, you can set up an account in such a way to fully protect your privacy.  If you do that, you can then not use your account for anything except for the groups.  I only use Facebook for the groups.

Here's my advice:  If you are going to contact me or anyone in an unsolicited email wanting them to buy books, you need to provide upfront the price you want as well as photographs of the books with the spines facing out.  It saves so much time and trouble.

I also want to add that I am not currently interested in buying books, except for certain very specific and difficult to find books for my collection.  I am trying to cut back on my extra books, so I am not interested in purchasing bulk lots or any books that are duplicates of books I already own.

Previous posts on this topic:

People Who Want to Sell Me Books
People Who Want to Sell Me Books #2

Posts That Unintentionally Offend

The most popular blog posts are the ones that mention eBay and various aspects of buying and selling on eBay.  Invariably, those are the posts that offend people.  There is something that happens when prices are mentioned that gets people worked up.  People get offended when anyone suggests that they have priced something too high.  A post this fall offended a seller.

I had no idea that my post had even a slight chance of offending anyone.  In fact, I usually don't even get a negative response to posts that I consider risky.  Whenever I get a negative response, it is unexpected.  I began that post as follows.

Recently, a collectible Nancy Drew item was put up for sale on eBay at an exorbitant price.  The item is probably worth around $25 to $35 and was priced at $1,500.  The seller stated that money was being raised to pay for medical bills.  Unfortunately, the item will likely not sell for an amount that will help unless the seller gets very lucky.

All I was doing was using an overpriced item to lead into what I wished to discuss, which is what books I would select to sell if I had to sell books quickly to raise funds.  I did not link to the eBay listing, since the point of the post had nothing to do with the listing.

Nevertheless, the seller of the listing became deeply offended and let me know how she felt on Facebook.  She thought I was judging her for listing an item high.  She took offense that I made a statement about how she would need to get lucky for the item to sell.  She chided me, telling me that I had better hope I never needed to raise funds to pay bills.  Er... I think that was the point of my post.  It could happen to me, so I was reflecting about how I would approach the situation.

I was glad that after a couple of hours that the seller came back and deleted her comments.  It was turning into an ugly situation, since another collector posted a comment bluntly critical of the seller after she complained about the blog post on Facebook.  This type of stuff doesn't need to be aired publicly.  I didn't need to know what she paid for the item or anything about her personal issues.  The seller also removed her item from eBay at about the time that she deleted her comments from Facebook.

It's never a good idea to respond to perceived criticism.  I learned several years back after some skirmishes in the comments of this blog that I should ignore any comments that have a critical tone.  I simply do not respond to them.  I said what I wanted in the post, and the reader made a response.  That's it.  There is a reason why many blogs do not allow comments.  I like getting comments when they are not negative, so I continue to allow them.

I do have an upcoming post that I think could offend some people.  If that happens and you are the one offended, remember that it's best not to go into a tirade to tell me off.  In fact, you should just ignore me and consider me an idiot.  It's a very effective technique.

Selling Books to Raise Funds Quickly

Recently, a collectible Nancy Drew item was put up for sale on eBay at an exorbitant price.  The item is probably worth around $25 to $35 and was priced at $1,500.  The seller stated that money was being raised to pay for medical bills.  Unfortunately, the item will likely not sell for an amount that will help unless the seller gets very lucky.

This started me thinking about what items I might sell if I were ever in a position to need to raise funds quickly.  The fastest approach would be to sell my most valuable books, but those are not books I wish to sell since I would never find replacements.  I feel that the best approach is instead to sell lots of books that are not of great value that could always be replaced without an incredible amount of trouble.  Ideally, these books should be ones that are not of great importance to me that I don't think about very often.  And of course the books would need to be sold at current market value so that they would sell quickly.

At least half of my collection is double-shelved behind other books.  The books that are of less importance are the ones I cannot see that are hidden behind the books that I can see.  I do not see the hidden books more than once or twice per year, so I could let go of many of them very easily.  All of the books seen in the following photos are some of the books that are shelved behind others.

I don't care much for the white spine Dana Girls books, so I would sell them if necessary.  I could sell my Whitman books with jackets and my Kay Tracey picture cover books.  I do have a habit of selling books as I tire of them, and some of these books are ones that I have considered selling, which means I would have no trouble selling them if I needed to raise funds.

I could also sell the rest of my Melody Lane books.  I don't like them very much.  I have already sold my assorted Lilian Garis books, because I doubt I will ever read the stories.  I don't keep collectible books that I will never read.  I only keep the ones that I have read or believe that I will read someday. 

I don't like the Nancy Drew Diary that much.

I only have the white one because it was in with some other books that I purchased on eBay.  I have never cared about it and have considered selling it several times.

I have a lot of duplicates of the Nancy Drew books with internals.  Some of those could go.

I don't care much for autographed items, and I am probably one of the few collectors who feels that way.  I have already sold some autographed items.

I am currently selling some Mildred Wirt Benson documents that I purchased 5 1/2 years ago.  This is not to raise money.  I purchased the documents for the information contained within, and a PDF copy of each document is all that I need.  It is true that Benson owned and handled the documents, but that sort of thing doesn't matter much to me.  I regard the documents the same way that I regard autographed items, and I have begun selling what items I own that fall into that category.  They are great items, but it is best if they go to those who care more than I do.

The auctions can be found on eBay and close on November 16.

What items would you sell if you needed the money?   

Cataloging My Collection

This summer I decided to catalog my collection.  I cataloged 4,485 books, which are most of my series books.  I did not do all of my books.  I wasn't concerned about getting everything cataloged.  I hadn't kept up my written records well for around 10 years, and I wanted to get a database that was more current.  I also wanted to get photographic documentation of my most important books and have the prices I paid for all of my books in an online database in case of loss.  It's not helpful when one's records are in the same place as one's books.  In the event of a loss, both the books and the records would disappear.

Here are the series for which I own the most books.

Nancy Drew - 2,368
Trixie Belden - 281
Judy Bolton - 221
Dana Girls - 199
Three Investigators - 135
Hardy Boys - 111

I discovered that at least two books are missing, and I cannot account for what happened to them.  The first one is my copy of the first Girl Scouts book by Edith Lavell, The Girl Scouts at Miss Allen's School.

I suspect that I might have sold the book accidentally around four or five years ago when I had other Girl Scouts books that were extras, but I really don't know.

Even more puzzling is the disappearance of my hardcover book for Nancy Drew #130, The Sign of the Falcon.  I have in my written records that I have this book, but I cannot find it.  I would not have accidentally sold it.  This is a mystery.

Both missing books should have been on shelves on the same wall and would have been within five feet of each other.  Perhaps their disappearances are connected, but I can find no trace of either book and have no idea where they would be.  I have looked under and behind all bookcases.

I used LibraryThing to catalog my books.  Words cannot express exactly how little I relished the task of cataloging my collection.  I had put the process off for years, then one day in early July, I decided to force myself.  And force myself I did.  It was tiresome photographing thousands of books.  It was brutal trying to interpret my rather disorganized and incomplete records.  In some cases, I was never able to figure out what I paid for a book.

I found the process of entering the data on LibraryThing quite cumbersome at first until I figured out how I could enter the data very quickly.  I have a CueCat, which scans the barcodes.  Since I have a massive quantity of Nancy Drew books that do not have barcodes, I spent one hour compiling barcodes for Nancy Drew #1-56.  I did this by searching the internet for each Nancy Drew title followed by "UPC."  This brought up a page which has a barcode.  I took a screen capture of the barcode and created documents that I printed.  Here is a sample of a part of one of my pages.

I took the CueCat and scanned the printed barcode pages, thus speeding up the creation of my entries for my Nancy Drew books.  For other series, I had to manually search from within LibraryThing for entries, which was slower.  

By the time I had entered a few hundred books, I quit editing titles.  I decided to go with whatever showed up.  After all, I know what each book is, and the title doesn't have to be perfect.  While I'd love everything to be perfect, I wanted to get the data entered as fast as I could since I did not want to do it at all.  Remember, I had to force myself to do the cataloging during the entire process from start to finish. 

While leaving the title alone, I did add a photo of my book to each listing and entered the price paid and date acquired.

I found that I could enter the data directly from the following screen on LibraryThing, which sped up the entry of data greatly.

The above page can be changed to show what you want it to show.  Double-clicking in each box allows for the information to be edited.  As I stated, I did not edit most titles.  I usually did not edit the author's name unless I noticed something that I cared to take the time to fix.  I did try to edit all the dates to reflect the actual age of each book.

After quite a bit of debate with myself where I changed my mind several times, I decided to keep my books in a private library.  This is because I have had aggressive collectors use high pressure to try to get me to sell certain books to them.  Having all books in my collection cataloged publicly makes me very nervous.  I never thought that the small percent of my books mentioned here and on my website would cause problems.

I try to be very careful about how much information I make public online.  Sometimes I worry that I have shared too much in this blog or on Facebook.  Sometimes I have gone back and edited posts, removing some information.

The trend nowadays is for everyone to share everything with everyone else.  That works fine for many people, but I am much more cautious.  My Facebook account is nearly stripped of all personal information.  I use Facebook only to interact with other collectors in the groups and do not use it for anything of a personal nature.  Facebook asks me every few weeks where I went to high school and college, and I refuse to answer.  I'm so sorry, Facebook, but you don't need that information.

I know that many people refuse to use Facebook because they don't wish to share their information.  You can be like me and not share much of anything. 

The Age-Old Discussion of What Should Be Read

Recently, an article was published by Slate which was written in order to create lots of traffic by enraging readers so much that they would write articles and link back to the original article.  The article worked quite well, generating dozens of links and much discussion.  Here's a link to the Slate article followed by my response.

Against YA:  Read whatever you want. But you should feel embarrassed when what you’re reading was written for children.

Alrighty then.  I don't feel embarrassed to read children's and young adult books, although I don't tell everyone.  Sometimes it's not worth the effort.  Sometimes I don't feel like having to explain why to the narrow-minded people.  They won't get it no matter what I say.

I have noticed that many adults who don't read children's books do read young adult books, including members of my faculty.  So I'm not alone although I do take it quite a bit further than anyone else I know.  The target audience of this blog, however, reads just as many children's books as I do.

Several good rebuttals were posted in the aftermath of the original article.

No, you do not have to be ashamed of reading young adult fiction
Let's All Just Read More Great Books, YA Or Not
This Is Why Young Adult Books Are Not Only Acceptable, But Beneficial For Adults
In Praise of Reading Whatever the Hell You Want
Really? Are We Still Genre Shaming People For The Books They Like?
I Write Young Adult Novels, and I Refuse to Apologize for It

The readers' comments are the best part of each article, because they tell us what people really think.  The following statement from C. S. Lewis was heavily quoted throughout the comments.

"Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

Really, that's all that needs to be said.  People who point fingers at others and claim that their actions are immature are, in fact, the immature ones.  I didn't realize until reading all of this discussion that the young adult category has exploded in recent years and that more of the books are purchased by adults, like me, than by teenagers.  According to a recent study, 55% of the people who purchase young adult books are adults and 78% of those adults report that they have purchased the books for themselves.  The stigma against reading young people's books is not nearly what it once was. 

I prefer young adult books rather than adult books because I don't want the adult level of sex and violence in my books.  I enjoy the young adult dystopian novels, especially the ones with zombies.  Those do have violence and some gore, but since the books are young adult books, they don't take the gore all the way to the extreme.  I want a good story without the gratuitous sex and violence.

Some of the comments to the articles stated that there is nothing wrong with reading young adult books, but then the statement was qualified with as long as that's not the only type of book being read.  Others phrased it slightly differently, stating that there could be a problem with reading young adult books but only if the reader was reading nothing other than those books.  Exactly why is that a problem?

This spring I read only Nancy Drew softcover books.  I read them at the rate of one per day from February through early May.  Since I wasn't reading anything else, according to these people, there was something wrong with me.  Really?  I bet those of you who have enjoyed the reviews haven't minded at all that I read all of those books.

Now I'm reading only the Three Investigators books in order from #1-43.  I suppose that is equally bad, right? There must be something wrong with me.  No... no, there isn't.

I do better when I read every book in a series in rapid succession.  A few years back, I was reading and reviewing the Grace Harlowe series for this blog.  I made the mistake of reading other books in between reading the Grace Harlowe books.  The result was that I got massively sidetracked and never finished reading and reviewing the Grace Harlowe books.  That's a shame.

I freely admit that I haven't read any books for adults in a long time.  I'm not sure what the last one was.  Years ago I read novels by Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and others, but I've been caught up on series books and young adult books for a long time.  I should go back and read some more of the classics, but that's not a current priority.  Maybe someday.

These days I prefer reading books that are easy to read, where I don't have to think hard.  I'm exhausted at the end of each work day, and quite honestly, I don't have the energy to read a scholarly tome.

Books have always been escapism for me.  I read what interests me, regardless of the reading level.  Isn't that the way it should be?

Recent eBay Purchases Spring 2014

In January, I purchased a hardcover edition of Barbee Oliver Carleton's book, The Witches' Bridge.

The book is in rough shape and is a library discard.  The book is more commonly seen as a softcover edition titled The Mystery of the Witches' Bridge. 

In March, I acquired a hardcover library edition of Nancy Drew #151, The Chocolate-Covered Contest.  While not in the best shape, the book is a hardcover.  The hardcover books are quite difficult to find for most titles above #120. 

I purchased seven different French editions of the Nancy Drew Girl Detective books.  I like the cover art.

This next purchase is a recommended checklist of girls series books put out by the University of Minnesota.

The entire text of the book is available on the University of Minnesota website, and I have used their website for years.  Scroll on down the page to find the checklist of titles.  Unfortunately, they have a habit of moving the checklist around, which means that I have had to search for it at times.  I prefer having an actual hard copy of the information.  At least the information in my copy won't be moving around where I can't find it.

I purchased a likely first printing of the Dana Girls book, A Three-Cornered Mystery.

I am continuing my random quest to acquire Hardy Boys books with white spine dust jackets.  I am not looking for first printings.  Original jackets that are in at least the low-end of the condition I seek as well as a lower price are the key factors.

I also acquired these two Norwegian books.

The first book is the Nancy Drew book, The Spider Sapphire Mystery.  The second book is the Dana Girls book, The Secret of the Jade Ring.

Summer 2014 Blog Posts

Due to my increased reading output from this year, I have a large number of blog posts already written.  I have reviews of all of the Nancy Drew Girl Detective books as well as the Nancy Drew Diaries books.  I have also started reading the Three Investigators books and am reading the Valerie Drew short stories at the same time.

I was uncomfortable during the spring months when the Nancy Drew Digest reviews were the only posts being published.  Many of you enjoyed those reviews and were undoubtedly very pleased to have them.  My discomfort came from wondering how many regular readers of this blog were not interested in those reviews and hoping that those people weren't losing interest.

I have a number of people who follow this blog solely for the eBay-related posts or information about scarce series books and values, and I have not published any of those in a long time.  I have been remiss with respect to those topics.

I prefer to alternate what I publish so that the different groups of people who follow this blog get regular posts that they like.  Since I am now reading the Three Investigators books, those reviews will begin to be published soon and will be mixed in with the already-written Girl Detective reviews so that new posts will have more of a variety.

I am also catching up with writing about other assorted topics.  Early this year, I got the flu, which messed me up for around five weeks.  After that, my job consumed me as we prepared for the End of Instruction tests.  My mind gets cluttered during the spring months each year, and all I could do was plug away at reading the Nancy Drew books as I worked on finishing out the school year.

My mind has miraculously become uncluttered since Friday when the school year ended, so I have gotten caught up on writing about some assorted topics that should have been written in the last couple of months.  Here is a list of what I have already written for the blog and in the likely order of publication.

International Shipping Rates from Top-Rated Plus Sellers

Nancy Drew Girl Detective #18 Pit of Vipers, #19 Orchid Thief, and #20 Getting Burned

May 2014 Book Finds

Nancy Drew #21 Close Encounters, #22 Dressed to Steal, and #23 Troubled Waters

The Three Investigators #1 Terror Castle and #2 Stuttering Parrot

Nancy Drew Girl Detective #24 Murder on the Set, #25 Trails of Treachery, and #26 Fishing for Clues

The Three Investigators #3 Whispering Mummy and #4 Green Ghost

Series Book Questions Spring 2014

Nancy Drew Girl Detective #27 Intruder, #28 Mardi Gras Masquerade, and #29 Stolen Bones

The Three Investigators #5 Vanishing Treasure and #6 Skeleton Island (in progress)

Recent eBay Purchases Spring 2014

Nancy Drew Girl Detective #30-32: The Perfect Mystery Trilogy

Nancy Drew Girl Detective #33-35: The Identity Mystery Trilogy

Nancy Drew Girl Detective #36-38: The Model Mystery Trilogy

Nancy Drew Girl Detective #39-41: The Eco Mystery Trilogy

Nancy Drew Girl Detective #42-44: Sabotage Mystery Trilogy

Nancy Drew Girl Detective #45-47: Malibu Mayhem Trilogy

Nancy Drew Girl Detective Ghost Stories and Super Mystery Books

Thoughts on the Nancy Drew Girl Detective Series

Revisiting Nancy Drew Diaries #1 and #2

Nancy Drew Diaries #3 Midnight Rider and #4 Once Upon a Thriller

Nancy Drew Diaries #5 Willow Woods and #6 Mystic Lake

If I stick with publishing every three days, these posts will take us up to the end of July.  I expect the later posts to be pushed back into August since more Three Investigators posts will be written and mixed in.  Additionally, I plan to review the Valerie Drew stories and will mix those reviews in as well.  You will probably get to read the first Valerie Drew review within the next two weeks.

My Summer Series Book Reading List

I am quite far ahead in my reading as compared to my published Nancy Drew reviews.  My goal was to be done with the Nancy Drew Girl Detective and Diaries series by the end of May, perhaps sooner.  I am now on track to be finished with the Girl Detective series by the end of the first week in May.  The Diaries series won't take long, so I expect to be finished with both by the middle of May.

I am so looking forward to reading something other than Nancy Drew.  Don't get me wrong.  I have greatly enjoyed reading the books, but I am also tiring of them.  There are way too many Nancy Drew books!  They go on and on.

I have a list of what I want to read (and do) after I finish the Nancy Drew books.  My list keeps getting longer and longer.  I have been denying myself all books other than Nancy Drew since late January.  This is my list.

1.  The new Nancy Drew game, The Shattered Medallion

Pre-orders start in just a few days.  Yay!

2.  The Valerie Drew stories

This was a recent discovery, and I am looking forward to reading the stories.  Valerie Drew was based on Nancy Drew and possibly also Judy Bolton.  Valerie is described as "plucky," and she has a dog who is even smarter than Judy's Blackberry.

3.  The Silence of the Library by Miranda James

This book was written by a series book collector and has references to series books.  I've heard that this book is very good.

4.  Brandon Mull's new book, Sky Raiders

I really enjoy Brandon Mull's books.  If you like Harry Potter, then consider trying Brandon Mull.  He does not get the attention that he deserves.

5.  Several new releases including Backs Against the Wall by Tracey Ward, Love at Last by Christine Kersey, and Enders by Lissa Price

These books are each the next installment in young adult series that I have read.  I have made certain to avoid them, because once I read them, I will be reading others, which will distract me from other books for at least a month.  Young adult books are kind of like a drug to me, and I can hardly tear myself away from them.  I will never get through the Nancy Drew books if I dare let myself read any of these books.

6.  The Three Investigators series

I have read the first two books and enjoyed them.  I want to read the entire series.

7.  The original text Hardy Boys books

I read these books around 20 years ago.  It's about time that I revisit them.

8.  Probably a bunch of other stuff that I've forgotten to mention  

I have so much to read and so little time!

I will hopefully be busy going down this list well before my last Nancy Drew reviews get published, so my plan is to intersperse reviews of other books among my Nancy Drew reviews once I reach that point.

Looking Ahead to the Next Two Months

This last week was spring break.  I had two goals: to get caught up on listing books for sale and to read as many Nancy Drew Digest books as I could.  I was hoping to get finished with the Digest books by today.  I succeeded, since I read #175 yesterday.  I have now written all reviews up through #175, even though the last few need to be proofread at least one more time.  Most of them have already been scheduled to be published, staggered every two or three days.

In addition to the reviews, I have also written a summary post about the Nancy Drew Digest series.

I have already begun reading the Nancy Drew Girl Detective series.  I knew that I would get to the Girl Detective books by the end of March, so earlier this year I stepped up my efforts in acquiring the last titles needed.

I quit buying the Girl Detective books new at around #10 because most books I was seeing had defects.  I had to quit buying from Amazon because of the defects, then I couldn't find nice copies in local stores.  If I was going to have to pay $5 or more per book, I wanted a perfect copy.  I began purchasing the books used as I found them.

I was down to around five titles at the beginning of the year.  I stepped up my efforts and reduced that number to just two by earlier this month.  I decided to go online for the last two to make certain that I have them in time.  The books were still going to cost at least $3 each as used copies including postage, and the sellers had no condition description.  I decided it would be safer to purchase the last two books new from Amazon.  I did so yesterday, and I should have the books within the next seven to ten days.

My goal is to read the entire Nancy Drew Girl Detective series and the Nancy Drew Diaries series by the end of May at the latest, preferably sooner if possible.  The only way I can get through the books fast is to avoid reading anything else.  When I allow myself to read something else, I end up getting sidetracked for one or more months.  I will never get these books read if I allow myself to read other books.  I have already denied myself at least three new releases since January that I very much want to read. 

When I finish the Diaries series, I will read the new releases.  I know what will happen:  I will most likely be reading contemporary books until around July.  Once I get past that, my plan is to read the entire Three Investigators series from start to finish followed by possibly the original text Hardy Boys books.  Whether I write reviews of those books remains to be seen, but hopefully I will.

In the next two months, you will most likely not see a lot of content in this blog other than the many reviews of the Nancy Drew series.  April and May are the two most hectic and emotionally draining months for me.  I am very glad that I have so many reviews written, because this blog will have continuous new content for a number of weeks.

I will probably not be listing many books for sale in the next two months.  I'm sure I will list some, but likely not very many.  As always, if you purchase books from me, they will be mailed by the end of the next business day regardless of how busy I am.  I may not get around to leaving positive feedback for a number of weeks, but the books will be mailed fast.

Two New Series Book Groups on Facebook

Two new Facebook groups have been created in the last 24 hours.

I created this group:

Collecting Vintage Series Books

Jennifer Fisher created this group:

Nancy Drew Fans

Since many people get easily confused about the similar names, I want to take this opportunity to explain that my name is Jennifer White.  I collect series books, write in this blog, have a website called Vintage Series Books for Girls, and maintain my Jennifer's Series Books Facebook page.

This is my (Jennifer White) avatar:

Jennifer Fisher uses this avatar:

Yes, it can be confusing since both of us collect Nancy Drew books, but we are two different people! 

If you follow Jennifer Fisher on Facebook or elsewhere, you will notice that she always signs her name as Jenn.  That's not me.

At least several times per year, someone contacts me with some type of statement that tells me immediately that they think I am Jenn.  It's happened at least three times in the last two weeks, which seems to indicate that the confusion is getting worse.

Most telling is when people address me as Jenn.  I do not shorten my name and prefer to be addressed as Jennifer.  When you call me Jenn, I feel uncomfortable because I assume that you think I am someone else.  I am sure many of the people who do address me correctly also think I am someone else, but at least I am not left feeling uncomfortable. 

Don't be surprised if I begin posting periodic announcements about who I am, kind of like public service announcements.

Young Adult Fan Art Exhibition

In February, Gallery1988 had an art show paying homage to children's and young adult literature.  Nancy Drew was a favorite subject for the artists.  Other subjects included Sweet Valley High and the Baby-Sitters Club.

Gallery1988 made limited run prints available for most of the art.  I purchased three of them, shown below.

Seen above is "Nancy Drew" by Becky Dreistadt.

Below are two versions of "Stratemeyer's Summer Girl" by Erica Williams.

The "Stratemeyer's Summer Girl" print is neat because of all of the symbolism, some of which cannot be seen in the online image.  The title of the store and the clock in the window are readily visible, as are the books in the basket.  But look closer at a photograph I took of the center of the print.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

The basket contains a magnifying glass along with the books.  "C Keene Cycles" is written on the side of the bicycle.  The front of the bicycle has the initials "ND."  Below the name of the shop is part of a blurb that ends with "repairs since 1930."

The image evokes memories of lazy childhood summer days filled with reading and fun activities.  I love it.

While I only purchased the three images shared in this blog post, I like many others.  I created a Pinterest board containing the art that seems to be at least loosely based on Nancy Drew.  Here are links to all four pages of art that is available for sale at Gallery1988.

Young Adult Gallery Page 1
Young Adult Gallery Page 2
Young Adult Gallery Page 3
Young Adult Gallery Page 4

2012 Book Collecting Year in Review

One year ago, I wrote up a summary of my collecting finds from 2011.  I wrote that "2011 brought me down to needing just one first printing Nancy Drew dust jacket and one first printing Nancy Drew book for the original 56 books."

In 2012, I finally acquired the first printing book for the Nancy Drew book, The Mystery at Lilac Inn, so I now have all 56 first printing books.  I still need the first printing dust jacket for The Secret of the Old Clock.  I do not expect that to change anytime soon.

Early in the year, I purchased a signed photo of Harriet Adams along with a letter from the Stratemeyer Syndicate to a fan.

I was thrilled when I found two different examples of the Nancy Drew 1940s Style Library Binding.

Nancy Drew #1 Old Clock Library Binding
Nancy Drew Clue in the Diary Library Edition

I was just as thrilled when someone contacted me to share photos of the 1940s Style Library Binding that she owns.  More of them are out there waiting for me to find them!  Perhaps I can find some of them in 2013.

I read a very special book, Mystery of the Witch's Bridge, in June.  I highly recommend it to all series book fans.  It's that good.

Also in June, one of the editors of Country Living Magazine contacted me, wanting to borrow a few of my Judy Bolton library editions.  I was pleased that someone other than me was able to see the patterned bindings as being neat decorative pieces.  My books were photographed and made an appearance in the magazine.

In October, I upgraded almost all of my Beverly Gray and Adventure Girls Burt editions.  I bought a Connie Blair boxed set.

Also in October, I purchased a large number of Three Investigators hardcover editions.  The plan was to sell them, since I have never been interested in the Three Investigators series.  However, I knew that I had never had this many Three Investigators books all at once and that I would be foolish to sell them without reading at least one of them.  My plan was to make a decision by January. 

It occurred to me this weekend that I needed to make that decision immediately, so I took the time to read the first book, The Secret of Terror Castle.  I must say that I did enjoy it.  I am already reading the second book, and then I will decide whether to continue or to read something else.  I have decided that I simply cannot sell the Three Investigators books at this time.  I plan to read at least a number of them and maybe all of them.

Nagging in the back of my mind is the fact that I never finished reading the original and revised texts Nancy Drew books again.  I published my reviews up to The Secret of the Wooden Lady.  I read The Clue of the Black Keys, but I did not have enough thoughts about it to write up much of anything.  That was where I stopped.

I cannot force myself to write up a review of a book when the thoughts do not come easily.  That's when writing for this blog seems like writing a required book report for school.  That's no fun and why sometimes my blog posts become infrequent.  I can only write something when I am in the mood and it comes easily to me.  Otherwise, I cannot do it. 

A possible solution to my Nancy Drew problem is to resume reading them and then perhaps write combined reviews that cover several books when I lack enough thoughts for one post to cover an entire book.  If I were to do that, then I would be able to keep going.

In 2012, I purchased 21 books to read with the Kindle App on my iPad.  Including the books I purchased in 2011, I have a total of 55 books on my iPad.  Depending upon the size of the actual books, those 55 books would have taken up a least four to five feet of shelf space and possibly a good bit more than that.

Prior to my purchase of an iPad, I only bought a few modern books occasionally, and this was because I did not care to waste shelf space on modern books that will not have any value for several decades.  I am always short on shelf space for the 4,000+ vintage books that I own, so I do not wish to take up space with bulky modern hardcover books.  Until I purchased an iPad, I was extremely selective about purchasing any modern books since I did not want them cluttering up the house. I am now less selective and have enjoyed many good books in the last two years that I would not otherwise have read.

Tomorrow will be my fourth anniversary on Bonanza.  I have now been on Bonanza 25% as long as I have been on eBay.  It's kind of amazing to me that four years have passed.

In 2013, I hope to sell on eBay somewhat more consistently than I did in 2012 so that I will not endanger my top-rated seller status every few months.  I will continue to maintain my Bonanza booth and add new and interesting books whenever I can.

I will maintain this blog with at least one new post per week and two per week whenever I can.  Several years ago, my goal was two to three posts per week, but for the last year I have found that pace to be quite difficult.  Much more time and effort goes into the average post than most people realize.  The most informative blog posts can take several hours to create.  And this is why I simply must be interested in writing about a subject, or the motivation disappears.

I appreciate each and every single person who reads this blog.  I have no idea how many of you are out there.  I know that I have 80 public followers here, around 150 people following my Facebook, and 101 people following through Google Reader.  I'm sure there is overlap between those numbers, and I'm sure that some people instead follow through bookmarks. 

I especially want to thank those of you who "like" my posts on Facebook, make comments on Facebook, make comments here, or communicate with me privately.  I know that the vast majority of readers will never communicate with me in any fashion, and I am fine with that.  But the few people who take the time to provide some feedback are the ones who keep me motivated and let me know that people enjoy what I write.  It means a lot to me!

Post Visibility on Facebook

Ever since Facebook's IPO, post visibility for all users has decreased. This affects all Facebook users, whether you know it or not. Facebook has decided that we should pay to increase our visibility. Even if we do pay, we will not be visible to everyone.

I have noticed that in the last two weeks, far fewer of my followers on Facebook notice my posts. This is my Jennifer's Series Books Facebook page. I do get some interaction so long as I post a photo or a link. When I ask a question, I usually receive no response. It's like no one knows I've asked a question. I realize that most people do not respond to questions, but it is odd to get not even one response.

Facebook has this feature called EdgeRank which determines who sees what. EdgeRank is all about forcing people to follow a link. EdgeRank likes posts that make people go somewhere to read something. If the page owner writes great content and does not provide a link, EdgeRank does not like that and is more likely to hide the content.

I have been enlightened about this by reading the following blog posts.

FB fans aren't seeing your posts (and how to fix it)

For FB page admins: How to reclaim part of your missing audience

The second post gives links to two ways to solve this problem.

If you have liked various pages, then you want to follow the steps to How to Avoid Missing Facebook Posts. This involves setting up an "interests" box and including links to all of the pages you have liked. Doing that apparently places all of your liked pages back in your feed.

Another solution would be simply to visit the pages you have liked on a regular basis. Even that method will not work completely. Facebook now randomly hides posts while you are viewing pages. You have to click on a grayed out box that says "highlights" and then select "posts by page" in order to see everything. You have to do that every single time you visit the page.

If you have a fan page, then you can set up a feed that will post from your blog to your Facebook page. The idea is to create a link that people have to follow, which then gets people involved again on the page. I tried it earlier using my other blog, and I don't like the result. I will experiment some more, but for me, the better solution might be just to make certain that everything I post on Facebook has links in it.

A Touching Inscription

This post is from November 13, 2010 and was never published.
.................................
Sometimes I read an inscription inside an old book, and I stop to reflect about the original owner and her life. The book is a circa 1942 copy of the Nancy Drew book, The Mystery at Lilac Inn. It has a glossy frontispiece illustration and poor quality paper that has deeply yellowed. The dust jacket is missing.


The inscription reads, "To Dolores (7) Carolyn Keene mystery's given to her on 12th Birthday by Mother." Dolores would have been born in around 1930, so she would now be around 80 years old, if she is still alive.

On that 12th birthday, Dolores received seven Nancy Drew books with dust jackets. The books would have been nice and new with white paper and shiny clean brand-new dust jackets. What a splendid birthday present!

The books cost $0.50 at that time, so Dolores' present cost her mother $3.50. I used an online inflation calculator to compute that $3.50 in 1942 would be close to $50.00 today.

I'm sure Dolores had lots of fun reading those books.

Popular Blog Topics Poll Results

I ran a poll asking you which blog topics you enjoy the most. 30 people answered the poll, although I have far more than 30 people who follow this blog. I am assuming that the 30 people who answered the poll represent the core group of readers who check the blog more regularly than others. For this core group of readers, the results came out about the way I expected.

Ceramic Christmas trees is the least popular topic followed by reviews of modern series, reviews of Nancy Drew games, Bonanza, and library editions. I am encouraged to know that none of the topics are boring everyone.

The most popular topic is reviews of old girls' series, which is not surprising considering the title of this blog. Other favorite topics are scarcity of series books, popularity of different series, unusual collectible items, and the various Nancy Drew topics. It is also not surprising that the Nancy Drew topics are favored; after all, I write more about Nancy Drew than any other series.

Let's take the bigger picture. Some blog posts which are of little interest to the core readers of this blog bring the most traffic to this blog. The following image shows which posts received the most traffic over the last six months. Remember that you can click on an image to see a larger version.

Notice that the posts about Percy Jackson and Rick Riordan are heavily viewed. These fall under modern series, which are of little interest to core readers of this blog. One of my most popular posts is the one I wrote on the System Tool 2011 rogue antivirus program, and that post is only of interest if you become a victim. I made sure to link to it here so that all of the people trying to find information on System Tool 2011 will find the right post.

My reviews of the Nancy Drew games are also heavily viewed. My post on Shadow at the Water's Edge is in particular heavily viewed because I mentioned a glitch. Many people find that post because they are trying to figure out how to get past the glitch.

Many of my posts on various eBay topics are heavily viewed, usually because of people trying to find out what to do when something goes wrong in a transaction.

You can look on the right side of this blog to see a list of popular blog posts. I believe that list is for the last 30 days. I often see Percy Jackson and Rick Riordan at the top of the list.

I have several blog readers who are people trying to build a following for their off-eBay business. I want to make a few points on that topic. A wide variety of topics brings traffic to a blog. A core topic is important, but at the same time, posts about transaction problems can bring many people to the blog.

Some people dislike eBay so much that they misspell the name on purpose (FeeBay, GreedBay, etc.) so that Google has fewer results that mention eBay. Not me. By spelling the name correctly, I bring more people to this blog, and those people might learn about Bonanza and my Jennifer's Series Books booth. And of course, I added the links to Bonanza on purpose.

1922 Illustrated Catalogue of Books

A few months ago, I purchased the 1922 Illustrated Catalogue of Books put out by The Book Supply Company of Chicago. The catalog is in excellent condition and even has the original order form.

Remember that you can click on any image to view a larger version.

The catalog appears to contain all books that were available for sale by all publishers during the year 1922. The catalog is 352 pages long. I took a few photographs of some of the pages for the juvenile series books.

Most of the series books are available at $0.54 each from the book company. Since only the series books that were available in 1922 are offered in the catalog, you will notice that not all titles in each series are listed. The remaining titles had not yet been published as of 1922.

Popular Blog Topics

A number of you have contacted me privately during the last week, and some of you have told me your favorite topics in this blog. I thought it would be interesting to create a poll as to which topics are liked the most. I already have a good idea of which topics are liked the most, but having more definite information would be useful.

I sometimes write a blog post that I happen to like a lot, and then nobody comments. Other times, I write something that does not strike me as particularly profound or interesting, and then that post ends up with 20 comments. The comments may or may not indicate how much most people enjoy a particular topic.

This is your chance to tell me what you think. Most of you do not wish to comment, so you can vote in the poll that is now in the right sidebar. If any of you wish to comment as well, that would be great. I tried to mention most everything from this blog, stopping short of mentioning specific series like Beverly Gray. If I left out what you like the most, tell me in a comment!

Also of note, I have two distinct groups of people who read this blog. The first group consists of people who collect series books. The second group of people have met me through Bonanza or elsewhere and follow the blog due to interest in the topics related to buying and selling online.

Just so you know, I don't plan to change what I write, but I do appreciate knowing what is liked the most. By that I mean, I will write about the same topics, but I might be more motivated to write about certain topics which I know are of more interest to readers.