February 2013 Book Club: The Hardy Boys #52 The Shattered Helmet

[MacGyver]

This month's Book Club selection is #52 in The Hardy Boys series- The Shattered Helmet. Leave your thoughts, comments and reviews here.

[Hardy Sleuth]

Kept thinking to myself, hey, I need to post my thoughts for the book club! So I better do that now. I enjoyed the good action and adventure in The Shattered Helmet.  And of course I always love fun humor, too, and you can find that in the book also. I really liked meeting their Greek pen pal, Evan. They did some traveling, went to several places, and you get to ride along.

[MacGyver]

Yeah- I've had my copy of The Shattered Helmet out too with intentions to reread it soon. I remember this as being one of my favorites. I like the connection to Greece, with Frank and Joe's pen pal Evan and the mystery he gets them embroiled in. I particularly like the aspect that the mystery is presented as one that has been unsolved for so long that it may be too hard for The Hardy Boys. And of course, they manage to crack and track down this long lost helmet, as they always rise to the occasion. There is a good amount of travel in the book as well. And the figure of Kitten Cole was a pretty interesting character as he is also presented as one who hasn't ever been caught- and of course, Frank and Joe manage to bring him to justice as well. And yeah- there are some funny moments of humor too- particularly involving Leon and his camera. And Chet was there for the ride too. It's a great, fun read.

[Hardy Sleuth]

Yeah- I've had my copy of The Shattered Helmet out too with intentions to reread it soon. I remember this as being one of my favorites. I like the connection to Greece, with Frank and Joe's pen pal Evan and the mystery he gets them embroiled in. I particularly like the aspect that the mystery is presented as one that has been unsolved for so long that it may be too hard for The Hardy Boys. And of course, they manage to crack and track down this long lost helmet, as they always rise to the occasion. There is a good amount of travel in the book as well. And the figure of Kitten Cole was a pretty interesting character as he is also presented as one who hasn't ever been caught- and of course, Frank and Joe manage to bring him to justice as well. And yeah- there are some funny moments of humor too- particularly involving Leon and his camera. And Chet was there for the ride too. It's a great, fun read.

I agree, they searched for those hard to find clues in a mystery that hadn't been solved for years, on a cold trail. And they solved it, that's really cool!

[tomswift2002]

I remember that this book was one of the things that inspired me to become a videographer.  Of course, when I'm working with video I don't have to wait days to see the footage.

But I really liked how the author explained about early cinema and the dangers with nitrate film.  This is one of the top two reasons that we no longer have the vast majority of silent films that were produced (or in the case of "Metropolis", damaged film during the transfers) during the silent era.  If you read the history of cinema, you'll find that before studios had "Cold Storage" vaults, a number of times their film vaults erupted in fire, especially in the summer, because nitrate was so unstable.

[MacGyver]

I do remember that part in the book about nitrate film pretty well- learning some about early cinema was definitely interesting for me too. That's really cool that The Shattered Helmet inspired you to become a videographer. Sounds like a fun job.

[Hardy Sleuth]

I remember that this book was one of the things that inspired me to become a videographer.  Of course, when I'm working with video I don't have to wait days to see the footage.

But I really liked how the author explained about early cinema and the dangers with nitrate film.  This is one of the top two reasons that we no longer have the vast majority of silent films that were produced (or in the case of "Metropolis", damaged film during the transfers) during the silent era.  If you read the history of cinema, you'll find that before studios had "Cold Storage" vaults, a number of times their film vaults erupted in fire, especially in the summer, because nitrate was so unstable.

That's really cool that this book inspired your career, tomswift2002!

I like reading and learning about early films and all, too.

[tomswift2002]

Well, in Helmet the author talks about how a number of silent films have been lost, and how are subjects of great quests to find even just a couple of seconds of footage.  The 1919 "Cleopatra" film was originally released at, I think, a running time of 2.5 hours, and yet today just 30 seconds remain.

And if you'd like to see some of my work, and what I do, just click the link in my signature.

[MacGyver]

I have looked through your site, sir. Looks like you do great work! Nice site layout too.

[tomswift2002]

Thanks.

[Hardy Sleuth]

Looks like that's a cool job, being a videographer, tomswift2002!