I remember reading one or two of the "Tom Swift" books, vaguely. It's been a long time! These (along with several Jules Verne tomes, my grandmother had a collection) were the first "grown-up" books I read.
Yeah, the Tom Swift books don't actually hold up all that well, so don't go into them expecting something great. They're fun to read though cause they're a part of pop culture much like Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys. Speaking of, I see that a lot of the old Gold Key comics such as Turok, Solar, and Magnus were recently republished and I'm a bit tempted to get a few just to check them out. Sadly, they seem to be a bit on the expensive side so I wouldn't be able to justify getting them all. I haven't read any Jules Verne, but I think Arthur Conan Doyle was a contemporary of his and I did read The Lost World which was a lot of fun, though I don't remember much of it.
Verne is not an easy read (as I recall) - the language is a little bit dated, and Dickens-ish, sorta? But I remember enjoying "The Mysterious Island" very much, as a boy (back in the 1970's).