Early Reading, Investigating the World 

Time for some more early reading I think... As before this is a snapshot of about a year's reading with every 10th book picked out to highlight (or at least indicate) the sort of things I was spending time on.   

Candy Man by Vincent King
Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock
An Alien Heat by Michael Moorcock
The Best SF Stories of Brian Aldiss by Brian Aldiss
Volcanoes by William J Cromie (Non-Fiction)
Life in the Artic by Alexander B Klots (Non-Fiction)
War Machines: Sea edited by Tom Perlmutter (Non-Fiction)
Practical Occultism in Daily Life by Dion Fortune (Non-Fiction)
Boys and Sex by Wardell B Pomeroy (Non-Fiction)
The Eighth Galaxy Reader edited by Frederik Pohl

This was when I discovered Michael Moorcock and read a great many of his often strange works, which were a mixture of Fantasy and odd-ball SF from the ‘New Age’ of Science-Fiction mostly from the 1970’s. They were, as you might imagine, rather mind bending! Of course the big thing that jumps out from the list above in the VAST increase in non-fiction reading. Not only was I launching into anything scientific I could get my hands on but there’s also the hint of my life-long interest in all things military history – especially the technology of warfare.  

There are, as you’ve probably noticed, a few strange entries here too. The first is a book on the Occult! For a sceptic from a very early age, I have been LONG fascinated with Magic and magical thinking and have read a great deal about the subject since my teens. Not only is the practice of magic – and the belief surrounding the idea – of great interest to me, I’m also greatly interested in the changing attitude of society towards those practices and beliefs.  

The other ‘oddity’ is a book on sex! As a very curious teenager I was, naturally, interested in sex. As this was a subject never raised at home – being the 70’s and not a subject for family chats – I felt the need to find out about it in other ways. Sex education in school was, to say the least, minimal. I remember watching a film in school – on an actual film projector back then – of a cow giving birth and we had discussions about the development of chicken eggs. Of course, being state education, we also had warnings of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (the good old STDs) and apart from, I think, one lesson on the theory of human reproduction that was it. So, being me, I naturally sought out books on the subject which were, as far as I can remember, pretty lame! But at least my reading scope was expanding both beyond simply science fiction and beyond fiction itself. I’m kind of curious myself what I got into next... [lol]