I was reading SF almost as soon as I could read, but could never get into Foundation for some reason.
I didn't create the troll. I didn't date the troll. In fact I hate the troll. I helped deflate the troll-- All done.
Willow ,'Potential'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Jessica - Jul 20, 2009 7:17:05 am PDT #9655 of 28400
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
Calli - Jul 20, 2009 7:19:54 am PDT #9656 of 28400
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs
My dad had all the Analog magazines from 1950-1984. One day when I was around 12 and in one of my "There's nothing to read!!1!eleventy-woe" phases he pointed me to them and suggested there was plenty there to keep me busy.
Geekdom was a foregone conclusion.
StuntHusband - Jul 20, 2009 7:23:48 am PDT #9657 of 28400
Electromagnetic candy! - Stark
"Dune" was totally transformative for me; my uncle John told me to read it when I was about 8; I did, and every year afterwards, thinking "I have until I'm 15 - Paul's age - to take over the world, or I'm a failure!"
Har har har!
Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Jul 20, 2009 7:29:48 am PDT #9658 of 28400
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"
My dad was a big influence in my SF reading habits. His bookshelf was always full of the greats, including Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. Never would have discovered it without him. These days I'm more into the TV than the books (I'm sad to say - it just seems to work out like that) and I'm the one who introduces him to things.
I bought him the first season of Battlestar Galactica for his birthday last month. He appears to be enjoying it: he called me last night. "I'm afraid that Matt [his dog] is a Cylon." Why? I inquire. "Because we went to the Grange [assistance dog training centre] last month, and we met his brother. And they looked exactly alike."
Dad-level attempts at humour are the same the world over.
Jessica - Jul 20, 2009 7:37:21 am PDT #9659 of 28400
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
My Dad and I had to stop buying each other books after 3 years in a row buying each other the same book for our birthdays (which are 6 days apart). Now we just email back and forth to see who bought what first.
Connie Neil - Jul 20, 2009 8:05:43 am PDT #9660 of 28400
brillig
It just occurred to me that I have no idea of the reading tastes of any of my family. How odd. I got into science fiction in my teens, when I was trolling the school library for something interesting and was intrigued by A is for Android by Andre Norton. Dear Andre, my gateway drug.
DavidS - Jul 20, 2009 8:34:07 am PDT #9661 of 28400
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Dear Andre, my gateway drug.
Me too. I think I read Daybreak, 2250 and then the Moonstone first.
My folks weren't readers so I backed into fantasy through comic books. In the early seventies, DC published comic book versions of John Carter, Warlord of Mars and (more importantly) Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.
Then I crossed company lines to buy Conan and soon I was haunting the used bookstores for ERB, Howard and Leiber.
Toddson - Jul 20, 2009 8:58:21 am PDT #9662 of 28400
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"
hm ... it just struck me that I was reading '50s SF magazines, but comic books were not allowed (except for Junior Illustrated Classics). My father also had various ER Burroughs books, E.E. "Doc" Smith, the Conan books, Ace SF Doubles ... all of which I was reading. But no comics.
Tom Scola - Jul 20, 2009 9:01:28 am PDT #9663 of 28400
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.
Beverly - Jul 20, 2009 9:17:55 am PDT #9664 of 28400
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.
connie and David are me. Daybreak 2250 AD was my maiden voyage, quickly followed by several years' collections of The Year's Best Science Fiction, plus Analog. Asimov, Heinlein, Sturgeon, Bradbury, Ellison, E.E. "Doc" Smith, so much social commentary at a time my social conscience and consciousness was burgeoning. I don't think I read outside the SF/F genres for several years, only branching into gothics as an offshoot of some of the more romantic fantasies. And from thence into historical romance, always with one foot firmly in space/otherworld. It wasn't until my late thirties that non-fiction even registered on my radar.