What was your first SF read?

[RimWorlder]

A bit of unauthorized and unscientific research here:

what was your first 'SF' read (based on your definition of SF)
what year was it?
how old were you?

did you keep reading 'that stuff' continuously from that point on, or did you come back to it at a later date (and if so, why?)

Mine was most likely 'The Runaway Robot', a scholastic book offering, in 1964/1965. I was about six years old. I kept reading continuously whenever I could find something my parents approved of from that point on. The following year, I was allowed to choose my own books and started with Heinlein's 'Starman Jones'.

 

[psikeyhackr]

The first book I read is in Project Gutenberg now.

Star Surgeon, by Alan Nourse
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/18492

I read it in 1961 when I was 9. I was hooked. I searched the library for sci-fi and read everything I could get my hands on. My mother told me it was "something crazy" but I ignored her.

I learned about the concepts of agnosticism and atheism from SF books. The nitwit nuns didn't mention them and had science books sitting on the shelves and never used them. That is why I am interested in sci-fi for promoting science therefore keeping the KNOWN SCIENCE accurate is important. Speculating about unknown science and technology is fine.

I don't even remember the second book. I wish I had kept a diary on the books and what they caused me to research and think about at the time.

I began learning astronomy and physics as a result of sci-fi books. I think people not asking for the tons of steel and tons of concrete on each level of the WTC is totally hilarious when I'm not pissed off about it.

psik

 

[Wrath]

Star Ship Troopers.

 

[suciul]

Lots of Jules Verne around 1974-5 when I was 5-6. Cannot remember which was first - maybe 20000 Leagues, maybe 5 Weeks In a Balloon, maybe Captain's Grant Children...

I've read as much sf as I could always, though before I came here ~1990 when the Iron Curtain fell, the modern selection was limited (some VanVogt, Asimov, Clarke plus local and Russian authors)

 

[nealasher]

I think my first real SF book was The Winds of Gath by E.C. Tubb and I thought it was wonderful. I went on to buy something like twenty books of the Dumarest saga before I realised the bugger was never going to find Earth.

 

[ArthurFrayn]

I remember it to be, (and think I've said it here before) Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and Asimov's novelization of Fantastic Voyage , both read when I was about 7.

 

[RimWorlder]

yes you have Arthur, but now we're going for scienctific accuracy, lol.

 

[ArthurFrayn]

I'm not BS-ing you, I have pretty good memories of where and when I was reading those books. I remember reading the Verne book on the bus.

Then things like Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet and The Runaway Robot just like you ( I still think The Runaway Robot is a lot of fun). Then the 2001 novelization, then a little RAH- Farmer in the Sky, Orphans in the Sky(those two pretty much over my head at the time for whatever reason).There's The Illustrated Man -Twilight Zone anthologies , The Counterfeit Man by Alan E Nourse, most of HG Wells' famous novels, your favorite, Crichton's The Andromeda Strain, The Terminal Man. Actually a lot of these I read from the school library, or the Scholastic Book Club.The Terminal man was regular library though.
But I didn't turn into a resolute reader of the genre, until I read Ringworld in Junior High School.
And then I started reading Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Silverberg, and the world changed.

 

[catsrule1]

I think my first scifi children's book was Cameron's Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet and then the rest of the series, then the John Kier Cross Mars series (Angry Planet), probably at about 7 years old (now 57). My true first 'adult' scifi was Catseye by Andre Norton, and that hooked me on scifi and her books, followed by Heinlein's books probably about 1-2 years after the kiddy stuff. Tom Swift soon followed. (No, not the original series, I never read those - just the Jr. series.)

 

[RimWorlder]

Arthur, I was just making a bad joke and was referring to the fact that I think this is the second time I've asked the question and the second time you've answered. Except this time it was formal, in its own thread.

 

[adamc]

I have no idea what was my first; I lived in a house full of SF. Perhaps "A Wrinkle in Time."

The first SF books I bought with my own money were by Larry Niven, after reading "The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton" when I was 14 or 15. Been a long time since I've bothered with Larry Niven, but I enjoyed him very much at the time.

 

[cgw]

In Jr High I read Burrough's Tarzan books and similar. It did not get me reading other scifi or fantasy and to this day I don't count it.
In high school I read Vonnegut but I do not really think of it as scifi.
In college, looking for some thing to read, I snagged The Hobbit and Dune from my housemate. This is what started me and I have never looked back.

 

[nealasher]

Ah, my brother bought Ringworld Engineers for me when I was a teenager and I thought it was wonderful. Even more wonderful was when I walked into a local secondhand bookshop and saw a great mass of Larry Niven books packed on a shelf. I thought all my birthdays had come at once and bought the lot.

 

[Anders]

Lots of Jules Verne around 1974-5 when I was 5-6. Cannot remember which was first - maybe 20000 Leagues, maybe 5 Weeks In a Balloon, maybe Captain's Grant Children...

I remember it to be, (and think I've said it here before) Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and Asimov's novelization of Fantastic Voyage , both read when I was about 7.

At 6-8 (around 1984-1986) I was considered the best reader in my class, but to have read several Science Fiction novels by then is nothing short of impressive. I read a lot of comics in my childhood, fairy tales, watched Science Fiction and other genres on TV and in movies, and read stuff like the Hardy boys or similar Scandinavian books. In my teens I moved more on to thrillers, modern day drama, and classics.

Exactly which book was my first Science Ficton book, and when and where is difficult for me to remember in detail, I wish I did. I was fascinated by Jules Verne at a very early age, but can't remember how early I read any of his material. However, the first I'm certain of is Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travel's which I read both as a kid (around 8-9) and later as an adult.

 

[Ropie]

Around 9 or 10 years old I picked up a Dr Who book of my dad's (I think it was The Tomb of the Cybermen!) and really enjoyed it. That was my first SF book but back then I just read what I liked and didn't consciously look for SF. I didn't start reading SF seriously until 2004! Having said that I read quite a few SF books from the age of 10 onwards but these days SF is the rule and non-SF is just a break from SF..

 

[ArthurFrayn]

Exactly which book was my first Science Ficton book, and when and where is difficult for me to remember in detail, I wish I did. I was fascinated by Jules Verne at a very early age, but can't remember how early I read any of his material. However, the first I'm certain of is Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travel's which I read both as a kid (around 8-9) and later as an adult.

See, now Gulliver's Travel's that's a difficult book to read as a kid, IMO. It was in the house, but I couldn't make head or tail of it until I was much older. The interesting thing about Verne is that I've seen quite a lot of people start out on one Verne novel or another really young, when I look threads like this on various bboards. I think Verne is a pretty easy read for a kid despite the how old the work is.

 

[cougs]

If I remember correctly it was 20,000 leagues when I was about 6 or 7 (1991-1992). Although my first could also be A Wrinkle in Time or a Swiftly Tilting Planet seeing as I remember reading those around the same time as 20,000 Leagues. It's interesting how many of us started with a Verne book, I never would have guessed that.

From there I moved on to read everything Michael Crichton had written. I was a very casual SFF reader until a few years ago (2005ish) when I caught the SFF bug for good.

 

[RimWorlder]

cougs,

are you aware that Crichton was relatively anti the classification of his works as 'SF'?

I read Terminal Man back in the early 70s, read Andromeda Strain, the Japanese detective story that escaped me right now, Jurassic, Sphere (truly awful) and the recent time travel novel (truly awful) and am glad in many respects that he wants to distance himself from 'SF'.

 

[cougs]

cougs,

are you aware that Crichton was relatively anti the classification of his works as 'SF'?

I read Terminal Man back in the early 70s, read Andromeda Strain, the Japanese detective story that escaped me right now, Jurassic, Sphere (truly awful) and the recent time travel novel (truly awful) and am glad in many respects that he wants to distance himself from 'SF'.

I was not aware of that, but after revisiting some of them lately i share your opinion about being glad he tries to distance himself from SF. I think of them as thrillers and quite mainstream. I always feel an obligation to mention MC in threads such as these seeing as he was one of the first authors I got into when I was young ( relatively...I'm only 21 ) .

 

[Anders]

This reminded me of the great song “Ushc Brand Men's Jeans” by Graham Smith, where he sings: "I'm like a Michael Crichton novel honey, I'm easy to read" in one of the verses.