My Childhood: Introduction To Science Fiction

When grandfather Lowe died, my grandmother asked my parents to store some of her belongings for her until she could find a place to settle down. Thus when my parents came back from my grandfathers funeral, they came back with several boxes of things, which they allowed me to peruse as I saw fit.

I found several items which delighted me, including a nice set of marble bookends, which I used to hold up some of my books. The boxes also contained lots of things which were obviously from Mexico, and many hundreds of books.

Two of these books caught my eye almost immediately. They were called "Stranger In A Strange Land" and "The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology". I started reading the anthology one day, and didn’t put it down until I was finished three days later. It was an awesome book, containing over twenty of the best science fiction stories ever written.

Once I finished that book, I read Stranger In A Strange Land. This is a science fiction novel about a man who was brought up on Mars in an alien civilization. It was the first science fiction novel that I ever read, and it totally fascinated me. Again, I didn’t put that book down until I finished it several days later.

After reading those two books, I was hooked into the world of science fiction. Up until that time, I believed all science fiction was contained in pulp magazines. I didn’t even realize that books containing such stories existed. These two volumes opened up an entire new and wonderful world to me, one which I still enjoy to this day.

Soon after reading those books, I stumbled across an advertisement for the Science Fiction Book Club. It claimed I could get four free books if I promised to purchase four more books over a year. I thought that would be easy, especially if the books proved to be even half as entertaining as those two that I found in grandmothers belongings.

Four weeks later, I received my first package of books from the Science Fiction Book Club. I read those books immediately, and soon hungered for more. I ordered four books right away, and continued ordering more for the next six months.

After that, I wondered what happened if I quit the book club. Could I rejoin, and get four more free books? I decided to try it and see what would happen. I quit, and rejoined a few weeks later. Shortly thereafter, I received more free books.

Then I got another idea. Could I join myself? This would not only gain me four free books, but they would send me two more books as a reward for joining up a friend. I tried it, and it worked.

In the years since then, I’ve quit and rejoined the Science Fiction Book Club perhaps twenty times. I’ve gotten more free books from those people than you can imagine. I’ve also gotten more reading pleasure from that book club than from any other.

Over the year, I’ve continued purchasing and reading science fiction. Sometimes the books sit and collect dust, and sometimes I read two or more volumes a day. I’ve always come back, however, and I consider science fiction (and fantasy) to be a close friend.