Nancy Drew Challenge January Recap

The Nancy Drew Challenge is a reading challenge for 2010 for readers to attempt to read all 56 original yellow hardbacks that were in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories. Click here for more information or to sign up for the challenge. At the end of each month, I will put up a post where participants of the challenge can recap how they did during that month.

So the first month of the Nancy Drew Challenge ends today. How have you guys done?

I've read the first six books in January. These first few books have been reread by me many times over the past few years as I have attempted to read all the books. I always read about the first 10 before I end up having to postpone reading them.

Several thoughts I had while reading:

- Did Nancy recently graduate from high school? She's supposedly 18 and still lives with her dad. She doesn't go to college, doesn't have a job, and (at the time) does not have a serious boyfriend for potential husband material. So what exactly is she doing? Does she intend to live with her dad forever?
- Bess and George seemingly come out of nowhere. They are introduced in the 5th book, phasing out Nancy's friendship with Helen Corning.
- In the Secret of Red Gate Farm, I noticed some politically incorrect terms being used to describe Native Americans. One particular incident involved Nancy, Bess and George buying "Squaw costumes" for the dance
-This seems to be a recurring trend with a lot of mysteries, but I just love how the culprits will just blab their confessions to Nancy before the cops come. It seems to be the only way for the reader to get the whole background story.
- I've noticed that many times a character will react to a situation with a lot of excitement. For example "Are you serious?" cried Nancy. It just seems very weird to me to use the word cry as a verb in this way. Just a pet peeve.

This stinks because I KNOW I had lots more tidbits I was thinking while reading and now I can't remember them. For next month, I will have to jot down while reading.

Overall, I'm enjoying these reads. Some of the mysteries are better than others. Even more interesting is that for some of these books, even though I've reread them many times before, I could NOT remember who the culprit was. The storyline shows their age, but it's still a delight to read. I've already gotten the next several books on request for the library so I will be glad to continue my journey to complete my goal.

Oh, on another note, I received the prizes for those who complete the challenge (or at least read 30 books in 2010), the Nancy Drew Computer Games from Her Interactive. They look FAB. The winners of these are going to love them!

How was your experience with Nancy Drew in January? Link up your responses in the Mr. Linky below. Please link directly to your post page and NOT your main blog page. If you don't have a blog, write about your January recap in the comments.