|
Venus Boy, by Lee Sutton. It was the first SF I ever read (my parents tried to keep me from reading the stuff). I have been trying to buy a copy for a decade or more, but it was apparently only sold to a few libraries, and prices are obscene. As in "could buy three or four whole ebook readers" obscene.
Star Man's Son by Andre Norton. It was the first SF I ever owned (despite parental oversight; it came from the Scholastic Book Club) and it made all the difference in the world.
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. The movie is nothing at all like the book, by the way. It will make you think. A lot of my beliefs about honor and duty came from that book.
Silverlock, by John Myers Myers. It changed my life not so much for itself, but by introducing me to a whole world of literature. I'm still following up allusions, decades later.
There are more, a lot more, mostly SF and fantasy. Andre Norton's books, especially the early ones. The Robert Heinlein juveniles. Tom Swift and a few other products of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Horatio Alger. Hugh Walters. H. Beam Piper. There are more that I'm not thinking of right now (one word: Cataclysm) but they contributed, too. Every book I read adds a little, pro or con. I think that's what being a reader, instead of just someone who happens to read books, is all about.
|