Literature, The First

I have always been a reader. My father, David, read to me nearly every night as an infant(and on). Once I was able to read for myself, I almost couldn't stop. I love reading, although to be clear, I am no expert on Literature or English. Growing up, the two biggest series I remember reading were The Hardy Boy's and The Redwall Series.
The Hardy Boy's is a fun "little" series about a pair of sleuthing teenage brothers, their detective father, and their "chums". I say little, but the number of books authored by Franklin W. Dixon numbers over 200. These were difficult to read at first as I was still expanding my vocabulary and when I started. The series was about 80 years old when I first delved into it.
Amazing what a little research can do. I just learned that Franklin W. Dixon is a pseudonym for Leslie McFarlane. Also, the series was revised in the 50's to eliminate some racial stereotypes.
Bunny trails aside, The Hardy Boy's were a huge part of my childhood. They got me extremely interested in detective work. 5 points(detailed at the end of this post) to everyone who can connect that to my current job. Beyond the interest in mysteries, however, The Hardy Boy's, and by extension Franklin W. Dixon/Leslie McFarlane, hooked me on reading. This would begin a whirlwind affair that would get me in trouble, impact(and most likely aid) my introversion, and open my eyes to the power and allure of literature.
The Hardy Boy's were fairly short, large index card sized pages numbering about 160ish. Redwall, on the other hand, she was a whole new beast. I certainly did not jump from The Hardy Boy's to Redwall overnight though. There were certainly other books/series in the interim. The Boxcar Children perhaps? And numerous others that I cannot currently recall I am sure. Ah, but Redwall. Redwall was(and still is) a love. I could not number the times I read some of the entries in the series(mostly because I don't remember the number of times, but it was large, but I digress).
Redwall was at least quadruple the length of The Hardy Boy's. Smaller print, larger pages, two and a half times the number of pages, and a dust jacket! And what a universe Redwall details. For those who do not know, Redwall is not a story "Of Mice and Men". It is a story of mice, and rats, squirrels, badgers, shrews, stoats, ferrets, birds, at least one dog and one horse, and countless other small, varminty animals. The series chronicles the adventures and struggles of the good faction in its own universe filled with heroism and friendship. Just like The Hardy Boy's, however, each book follows a fairly similar script to every other entry in the series.
At some point I "outgrew" Redwall as I had "outgrown" The Hardy Boy's. Still, reading was a passion. I would read for hours on end. Tossing and turning in bed from my right side to my left, just so I wouldn't have to support the entire book.
I recall being tasked with reading novels in grade school through high school. Most were terribly short. Looking back, I think I made too much of a fuss about being forced to read and then report on what I had read. At least I enjoyed reading. I still pity my classmates who would have rather eaten dirt than read, much less do a project/report on the results.
As this has become of a decent length, at least much longer than I had anticipated chronicling, I will extract the rest and put it into a second(or more) part(s).
Some observations at the end of writing/drafting this first true blag entry(and writing a bit more for the next portion) there are a few idiosyncrasies  to notice.I am actively doing research to ensure that I don't write completely asinine sentences. This research clearly will lead to tangents(see above if you don't believe it). These tangents show I clearly don't remember my schooling very well as I am "final" drafting this on the spot instead of having a rough draft. Hopefully my teachers will forgive these shortcomings and view the final product and be proud of how I have expanded upon what they taught to me.
I am actively editing but that does not make up for the lack of a prior draft. I clearly have more to state than I initially thought. It seems as though I will be writing in parts much more often.
This writing style is completely different than anything I was ever taught. Yes, it definitely contains many elements I was graded upon, but it has others as well. Influences from the current series I am reading(for those who can't read past my facade, I think it does). Along the same lines, this blag will be lots of my thoughts directly in a textual form. There will be jokes, allusions to other things, and most definitely a lot of insights into how my mind works. One thing I would like to do, depending on the level of interest will be to award points. Obviously made up with no value what-so-ever(this definitely isn't one). So get commenting, earn those points, and more importantly, join me on this wild ride through my exposition. "Hold on to your butt's"!!!