Since none of the women on this blog have addressed it, it's left to a man to note that since she was mentioned in the confirmation-hearings for Sonia Sotomayor, a couple of features have raised the topic of the influence of Nancy Drew. Sunday, in the NY Times, Jan Hoffman noted, "In recent years, Laura Bush, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Gayle King and Diane Sawyer have described themselves as fans." (Hoffman also supplied the question given above.)Earlier, Kathleen Parker had a column in the Washington Post in which she described how both the books and the fictional character influenced her.I think I may have read one or two of the Nancy Drew mysteries, but I believe I read all of the Hardy Boy series, but theyve left no permanent memory--I don't even remember their names. I have fuller memories of the Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs (much better than the movies)and the dog books by Albert Payson Terhune, and Walter Farleys novels about great horses. Later on, it would be the historical novels of Samuel Shellabarger and Kenneth Roberts.So what was it that got you to love reading? And was there a fictional character who had the kind of influence that the women aboveare attributing to Nancy Drew?