A Moment that Changed my Life
If you ask most people about a significant turning point in their lives, they’ll mention marriage, the birth of a child, or a career—or perhaps all three. Those were important for me as well, but there was another moment that changed my life. The first book I ever read from cover to cover was Robert A. Heinlein’s novel Starman Jones, published in 1953. Yes, it literally changed my life.
For the first eleven years of my life, if I wasn’t required to read something, I didn’t. Often, that included assigned reading at school.
In June of 1966, my parents bought thirty acres just outside of Shaffers Crossing, Colorado. The valley sits at about 8,000 feet, and at the time only thirty people lived there. Dense pine forests covered the hills on both sides of the valley. A creek splashed along the valley floor, full of fish. Our property rose from the east side of a dirt road running through the vale.
No television and few radio stations reached Shaffers Crossing. Satellite TV belonged to the realm of science fiction, and cable television was still rare. No one had heard of the Internet. Our phone line was a single wire and was shared by eight neighbors. I know all of that sounds serene and beautiful, but I was eleven and very bored.
As summer faded into a cold mountain winter, the monotony deepened. People avoid venturing out during blizzards. My sister was a reader and a fan of science fiction, so in desperation, I asked to look through her books. As I browsed, I noticed a novel called Starman Jones. The cover showed a young man standing on the bridge of a starship. I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but it looked really cool.
It took me several days of near-constant reading to finish the novel, but once it grabbed my attention, it never let go. That book taught me that reading could be fun.
I never gave the book back to my sister and still have that original paperback copy of Starman Jones in my library. Afterward, I read all of Heinlein’s works. I also devoured the science fiction novels of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, including Asimov’s Foundation series.
During my teen years, I discovered end-of-the-world stories, a genre we now call post-apocalyptic fiction. The first novel of that type I read was Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. Later came books like Alas, Babylon, On the Beach, Lucifer’s Hammer, and many others.
I never stopped reading, and the list of authors I enjoy continues to grow. Eventually, however, I began asking myself, “What if the story went another way?” That question led me to invent my own plots and later write them down. I doubt I would ever have become a writer if I hadn’t first read Starman Jones and discovered the joy of reading.
In time, I also came to appreciate the uniqueness of Shaffers Crossing and the beauty of the outdoors. I hiked, camped, and rode horseback along endless trails and streams—but that’s another story.