Poll query: what was the first scifi or fantasy book you read? - rec.arts.sf.written

Message from discussion Poll query: what was the first scifi or fantasy book you read?

William George Ferguson

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More options Jul 6 2008, 4:24 am

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written

From: William George Ferguson <wmgfr...@newsguy.com>

Date: Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:24:58 -0700

Local: Sun, Jul 6 2008 4:24 am

Subject: Re: Poll query: what was the first scifi or fantasy book you read?

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On Sat, 5 Jul 2008 07:30:23 -0700 (PDT), "bayno...@yahoo.com"

<bayn...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Mine was Heinlein's "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel", so long ago it was
>still fairly new. I was amazed, enthralled, thrilled; I asked myself,
>where have they been keeping this stuff? Have they been hiding it? Is
>there more like it?
>I was in fourth grade.

I can remember reading the Mushroom Planet and Shy Stegasaur books, but the
book I cite as my gateway drug that made me a lifetime sf reader was The
Stars Are Ours by Norton, in an Ace Double around 1955-56 (so I would have
been 7-8).

When I was ten, my mother gave me a SFBC membership for Chrsitmas, with the
Conklin anthology as the first books, That led me to hunt down a whole lot
of authors (Poul Anderson, John Wyndham, Alferd Bester, Van Vogt, and on
and on, that was, and is, a truly worthwhile anthology),
--
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
(Bene Gesserit)

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