Favorite Books

Daily writing prompt

Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?

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Yesterday’s prompt was what was your favorite 3 books and what impact did they have on your life. I did not have time to answer that one, but since this prompt is about books also, I will combine the two. Pretty clever, huh. I can’t tell you what my favorite book was from childhood, but I can tell you my favorite series. It was the Hardy Boys, good old Frank and Joe Hardy. Another series I read was Bronc Burnett, about a high school football player. These books did 2 things. It got me into the habit of reading, and it got me hooked on books that had a continuing cast of characters or a main character. In my adult life I have read a lot of books. My two favorite authors are Ed McBain and Michael Connelly. I have read other books by them, but their two main series are the 87th Precinct novels by McBain and the Harry Bosch novels by Connelly. The 87th Precinct books started in 1956 and ended around 2005 when McBain died. There are about 52 books in the series and thanks to E Bay I have them all. I would say I read about 30 to 35 of them in various order by the time I acquired all of the books. Then I simply started with the first one and read them in order. Even though the books covered almost 50 years McBain only aged the detectives about 16 years. He also repeated clues from some of his early works to help solve cases. He had lots of little quirky things in these books that made them unique and fun to read. If you only read one 87th Precinct novel, read the one titled Kiss. I don’t want to say why but you will know when you finish the book. McBain was one of the most prolific writers I have every seen. He also wrote under the name of Evan Hunter. He wrote one book under both names. Connelly’s Bosch novels are pretty close to masterpieces. None of them disappoint but again if you had to read just one, I would recommend A Darkness More Than Night. One of the best books he wrote was Blood Work, a non-Bosch novel. If you have seen the movie, don’t worry it is nothing like the book. This book has the best ending of all time. They did not use it in the movie for whatever reason. I don’t know what impact all these books had on me, but I have always enjoyed reading and felt I have learned so much from all kinds of books.