I've always loved to read, and I love love love old books - the way they smell, the way the paper feels, the old-fashioned expressions ("Golly!") and the unintentional glimpses into the culture of the day.

I have some of my mom's books from when she was a kid - Nancy Drew, Heidi, The Hardy Boys, Little Women, The Bobbsey Twins. I like to think she said I could have them when I moved out, but it's quite possible I may have absconded with them in an unauthorized sort of way. I always intended to collect all of the books in the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and Bobbsey Twins series and I did pick up a couple at antique stores, but for the most part it just stayed on my internal 'I'd like to do that someday' list.

But this year, Rowan fell in love with the Bobbseys. Thanks to ebay we're on our way to a full collection of adventures with Bert, Nan, Flossie, and Freddie. We're collecting the originals, not the rewrites they did in the late 50s and the 60s. We've done all sorts of research on the authors (none of whom were named Laura Lee Hope). We found this website that lists who wrote which books: http://www.keeline.com/BobbseyWriters.html. One neat thing we've realized is that because so many different people wrote the books there are all sorts of inconsistencies.

There's a really interesting book about the Nancy Drew series called Girl Sleuth Nancy Drew and the Women who Created Her.

I love the cover art. Could she be more perky?