Found this online: Best and Most Popular Mystery Books and Series,
and it mentions my most favorite book when I was a child.

I adored this book, and have read it a few times as an adult, as well. I wanted to live in the box car so much. I never realized there were more books in the series until a few years ago. Duh! Have not read them, however.

I’ve read all of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie many times, watched the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew tv shows, read most of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone books, and didn’t realize she had died til I read this. The rest are in my books to check folder. So many books, so little time, as they say. I am a voracious reader, have been all my life. I could not wait to learn to read, and used to eat bits of the newspaper hoping to assimilate the knowledge of reading that way. Nope, didn’t work. I am a big mystery lover, read a lot of non-fiction, and cannot abide ‘had I but known’ books. “Had I but known the cute guy was the jerk, bad guy, killer, etc., I would never have fallen in love with him. Oh, my.” Oh, blech!

I’ve been disappointed upon watching movies based on books most of the time, so I tend to avoid them now. The Hunger Games, for example, I refuse to watch. I watched the Swedish version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and it wasn’t horrible. The Hollywood version was, so I stopped there. The books in the series had huge chunks of tedious filler, but were really horrifying to read otherwise. Someone else’s imagination on film cannot compare to what your own mind can visualize in reading something. DaVinci’s Code was so-so, but was saved by the inclusion of
Paul Bettany, who I love since seeing him portray Chaucer in A Knight’s Tale, one of my favorite movies.

Okay, illness-wise, since I went down to 8mg prednisone, it has been all downhill, with the occasional rallying day where I can actually function. I am feeling a bit depressed about it today. Waking up in pain and exhausted every single day is something I had hoped was in the past. Fibromyalgia is a cruel trickster in that aspect, as it gives you brief respites and then comes back in force to knock you back again. I’m tired and in pain and foggy-brained and it really, really sucks big time. But it is what it is, and all you can do is wait it out, do what you can, and hope for a good day in the near future. Bemoaning your fate has absolutely no effect, and I really want to enjoy my life as much as is possible giving my limitations, so I work on not dwelling. Sometimes it’s harder than other times, however. Like when you’ve been doing relatively well and then you’re not again. Bah! Also, Humbug!