My Quest and How It Got Started

The crucial thing is that I started reading Hardy Boy books sometime in the 1960s, which isn't long after they started to be updated, revised, and sometimes completely rewritten. They were usually given to me as a gift from my parents, so they bought them new from the bookstore, or department store, so they were always the most currently published version—they never bought me used books from the used bookstore. So as far as I knew, these books were the only versions ever written. Then one day, when I was in grade school, I got a Hardy Boy book from the library—I believe it was "The Shore Road Mystery"—and there was something terribly wrong with it. It was like I was on drugs, reading that book, though at the time I didn't really think of the concept of "on drugs"—it was like I had gone insane—though I wasn't really aware of that concept, either. I was confused. It was so different—it was the same characters, but their personalities were different. The language was different. It was the same, but different. I had no idea what was going on. There was something terribly strange about that book—and strangely attractive. It wasn't until years and years and years later that I discovered that the Hardy Boy books I read were all rewritten versions of the original ones. That older book from the library was one of the original versions. Once I realized that, I knew that I had to go back and reread all of these books in their original text. But they're not easy to find. So that is my quest. Maybe quest is too strong a word. Well, okay, quest.