My Love Affair with The Three Investigators

My painstakingly compiled collection of "The Three investigators" - of which I am quite possessive and rather proud :D The child in me is still in love with them!!

Many of us have a childhood book that we remain very fond of, even as we grow older. For some, its Enid Blyton, for some its Tintin or Asterix, for me it has been, and shall always be the 'The Three Investigators' Series.

I was first introduced to this series in school, in class 7 or 8. Even then I liked suspense and mystery books, I had already read the complete Sherlock Holmes that dad bought for us, and all the Agatha Christie books I could find in dad's collection and the school library (back then we had no other source of story books - there were no stores in the small town we lived in, and none of our friends and relatives were as fond of reading). I read whatever I could find, and was perhaps the most prolific borrower from my school library. And that was when I chanced upon a Three Investigators title in the school library, and the rest, as they say, is history. I instantly fell in love with the series, and after being acquainted with Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys never appealed to me.

The library was very poorly organized, and I took great pains to find new titles of the series .... and oh! what a joy and excitement every new discovery brought! Both me and my brother loved it, and it was an exciting news at home when we had a new one to read (Let the fact be recorded that being rather lazy, he rarely took the trouble to find them, but was more than happy to read them, quite often misappropriating them to read them before me!) There were times when I was able to find 2-3 of them at once, and my joy knew no bounds then. Although the prescribed borrowing limit in the school library was 1 book per week, the librarian recognized my love for books. She was also considerate of the fact that I kept the books with utmost care, at times mending battered books before returning them, and allowed me to borrow as many as I wanted. I remember once getting 5 Three Investigators issued at one go, and I guess any treasure couldn't have made me happier.

I tried to interest some of my friends in them, trying to introduce them and get them to understand and appreciate what I loved, but failed at it. Though in honesty, I think I was secretly glad that these wonderful books had no (or very few) other takers, and I had them all to myself :-P

By class 10 or 11, I had read all the titles in the library several times, and longed for the ones that I had not read, but in vain - there was no other place to find them. In the meanwhile I had found one of the titles - the very first one of the series, in dad's old collection in his paternal home, and it remained a prized possession - the sole one we owned - for a long long time. And the unread ones remained an illusive dream.

After many years, when I moved to Noida, I found some old and used copies on roadside stalls in Noida and Delhi (never found them in bookshops - they have long been out of print), it was too hard to resist the temptation .... and an affair was rekindled. Whenever I used to go to one of these markets where one of these hawkers sat with used books, I looked through all of their stacks to find a title or two. I usually bought any title that I did not have, even if it was battered, and sometimes a second copy if the new one was in significantly better shape than one I already had. And thus, after an effort of nearly 10 years, I am now the proud owner of almost 35 titles of the 43 in the series.

Thanks to the internet, I managed to find soft copies of them too! Though I read the soft copies of the ones I have not already read, the digital version has never held for me the same charm as the feel of good old paper in my hand!

PS: 
My brother pointed out that the record, in all fairness, should also show that it was he who introduced me to the series - with "Haunted House"!!
I had incidentally (conveniently ?) forgotten the fact. Since my memory deserts me, I am prepared to concede the fact. However, looks like his memory isn't what it used to be, either - there is a "Haunted Mirror" and a "Shrinking House", yes, but no "Haunted House" :) I think "Green Ghost" might have been the first one I read.