Early Reading, Just the Facts!
Despite reading LOTS of fiction, and especially Science-Fiction, during my early reading years I also read quite a lot of non-fiction too – more often than not inspired by my fiction reading. As I was devouring SF novel after SF novel, I couldn’t help but wonder at the real science behind the things that amazed me on the page. The answer: To the Library!
Flight With Power: The First Ten Years by David Wragg (Non-Fiction)The Double Planet by Issac Asimov (Non-Fiction)
The Collapsing Universe by Issac Asimov (Non-Fiction)
Rudolph Valentino by Alexander Walker (Non-Fiction)
It’s No Sin to be Rich by William Davis (Non-Fiction)
The Road to Tyburn by Christopher Hibbert (Non-Fiction)
The Cometeers by Jack Williamson
The Identity of Jack the Ripper by Donald McCormick (Non-Fiction)
On the Scent with Sherlock Holmes by Walter Shepherd (Non-Fiction)
The Deathworms of Kratos by Edmund Cooper
So... LOTS of non-fiction from a wide range of subjects (I think my ‘butterfly’ was on speed back then) from Technology to History to Crime to Biography of silent movie-star heartthrobs... Butterflies will flutter.... I supposed that my young brain was just sponging up anything and everything at that age and was always looking for more. I’ve never really been able or willing either to focus too much on one particular subject or dismiss an area as uninteresting or ‘off-limits’. Frankly, even I don’t know what will interest me next – which makes popping into a library or a bookshop quite an adventure! More to come...
7 comments:
Aw... the "spongy brain butterflies" are real! My parents had a lot of nonfiction on various topics, so I'd climb up on the counter and try to get those books down without causing any dominoes. A friend I were just talking about it this morning... where do you think curiosity comes from, and why do certain people have more than others?
I know people who have ZERO curiosity about the world and have no interest in anything they consider as 'useless' - of no immediate practical use. I struggle to understand how they can even exist. I think curiosity comes from two things - as does all of our personality traits: genetics in how our brains are wired and early learning experiences. Even a curious child can have that deadened in an early environment that is either unstimulating or hostile to curiosity.
I still shake my head about a comment one of my old work team said. I was reading an Introduction to Economics when she enquired what I was reading, so I showed her. What are you reading that for she asked. Because its a subject I don't know anything about, I replied. To which she said: Why are you reading about something you know nothing about.... Personally I think that's a pretty good reason to read about a subject.... [shakes head at the memory].
That's quite funny ... and a little sad!
Apparently the *average* Brit reads 3 books a year... THREE. Can you imagine if you were restricted to that? Imagine how much you just wouldn't know or even suspect about the world after a *life time* of reading.... People @ work were actually AMAZED that I read 70+ books a year. I thought that was a LOW number... [lol]
I'm concerned about the amount of books I can't read and I've been pegging 170 pretty consistently the last few years. Even if an alien took over Earth and outlawed any new books, physical/audio/ebook, even THEN there are still so many books still out there that I'd never catch up. It's the only FOMO I experience.
Also: Deathworms?! That'd get my attention.
@Marian my mom was deeply concerned when I read biographies of Hitler and Stalin back to back. It's like she thought I want to read about these men because I wanted to be like them. Got the same thing from friends when I was reading biographies of Bush, Clinton, etc -- "Ooh, you're a liberal?" "Oh, you're a right-winger?" etc.
I have resigned myself to the horror of books unread - not just out there in the world, but here in my very house! [shudder] But, as with you, if they stopped publishing books tomorrow I'd still have enough to read for the rest of my life and beyond.
Edmund Cooper is well worth checking out if you get the opportunity.
I don't tend to read books by people or based around ideas I have strongly negative opinions about. I think it just wastes my time. But I also (generally) avoid topics that 'sing to the choir'. Books which meet my beliefs even close to 100% are SO boring. I want to expand my knowledge - not just confirm it.... So I like living around the outside edges of my beliefs/interests to always look at opportunities to push things further out. Isn't that what education/reading is all about?
Oof... insanely jealous of you both. I just figured last night it would take me 20 years to make it through my TBR list if I read 50 books a year (which I haven't quite managed to do in recent times). I plan to make more of an effort though, as well as start pruning the list down to priorities.
@Stephen - Keep 'em guessing! XD When my grandpa passed away, we discovered among his things an assortment of pamphlets and newspaper clippings about Mormonism. He had no interest in converting, it was just the analog equivalent of "bookmarks" about a topic that fascinated him.
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