This book changed my lifeThe Goat writes, "Some books have made a huge impact on my life." It's true. It wasn't until the b3ta mods read the Flashman novels that we changed from mild-mannered computer operators into heavily-whiskered copulators, poltroons and all round bastards in a well-known cavalry regiment.
What books have changed the way you think, the way you live, or just gave you a rollicking good time?
Friendly hint: A bit of background rather than just a bunch of book titles would make your stories more readable
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chthonic, Thu 15 May 2008, 15:11)
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On holiday aged 11in Alnwick. Staying in a large, draughty house, and unable to do much as it pissed with rain the first few days. Started scanning the bookshelves one wet afternoon and found a copy of Triplanetary, by E.E. 'Doc' Smith. It's the first part of the Lensman series, it's pure 30's pulp science fiction, and it was exactly what I needed there and then. From a wet Tuesday in Alnwick to galaxy-spanning adventure with super-weapons and melting cities took all of about 5 pages, as Doc Smith didn't muck about.
I'd read some Trigan Empire as my parents bought me Look and Learn every week on the grounds that it was educational. I'd seen some episodes of Star Trek, so I knew I liked all this lasers and spaceships stuff, but I didn't really know what it was called, and I didn't know it came in book form. Before the holiday was out, I'd bought all the Lensmen books I could afford with my holiday money - Galactic Patrol, Grey Lensman and Second Stage Lensman. I'd been into the SF section of a bookshop and realised there was an absolute ton of this stuff out there.
From there, I got to know every librarian in my home town by name, because I couldn't afford to buy books very often. A lot of the libraries didn't carry much SF, so I had to cycle around them to see which ones had which books. Because I didn't know how broad the market was, I read anything and everything that sounded even vaguely like SF. All the usual suspects, Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Shaw, Sheckley etc. but also Walter Miller, Philip K Dick, Alfred Bester, and a whole heap of books that confused the coitus out of me because I was wondering where the spaceships and aliens were.
I've been reading SF, fantasy, and just about everything else ever since. My house has rooms filled with books, and overflow shelves in the living room, and bedroom. It all started with Triplanetary. Thanks, 'Doc'.
(, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:33, 1 reply)
And you were lucky to read them before you'd read much elsesince they feature so much that later became cliche. You got to read them 'fresh' :)
(, Thu 22 May 2008, 3:44, closed)
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