Books That Changed My Life, Part One
Books changed my life. In 1966, I was a bored eleven-year-old who never read anything unless I was under duress. That was the year my parents bought acreage just outside Shaffers Crossing, Colorado, at that time a remote mountain village of about thirty people.
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 telephone line consisted of a single wire shared by eight neighbors.
I know all of that sounds serene, but I was eleven—and very bored. You can read more about that time in my life in the blog post A Moment That Changed My Life.
On a very cold winter day that year, I picked up Starman Jones by Robert Heinlein. My life changed course. Reading provided entertainment, adventure, and new ideas. It allowed me to visit distant places in my mind—even new planets.
In this post, I’d like to introduce you to four of the books I read that year that have remained important to me and my writing.
Starman Jones
This novel was published in 1953, but I didn’t read it until 1966. At that time, 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, and as I read the book, I wanted to travel with him.
The story follows Max Jones, a young man who dreams of becoming an astrogator and traveling among the stars. After running away from an unhappy home, he uses his remarkable mathematical ability and a certain amount of deception to secure a place aboard a starship. When disaster leaves the ship lost in space, Max must rely on his memory, courage, and growing skills to help bring everyone home.
Farmer in the Sky
This novel was published even earlier, in 1950, after first appearing as a serial in Boys’ Life, the Scouting magazine.
The novel follows teenager Bill Lermer and his father as they leave Earth to join a colony on Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons. Settling a new world proves far more difficult than Bill imagined. He must contend with harsh conditions, hard physical labor, natural disasters, and the struggle to turn an alien landscape into a place where humans can live.
Today, we know that living on Ganymede would be next to impossible, but in 1966, I really wanted to settle there.
Tunnel in the Sky
This novel was published in 1955. It follows Rod Walker, a student preparing for a career in interplanetary survival. For his final test, he and other students pass through a portal and are left on an unfamiliar planet. The test should last only a few days, but when no one returns to retrieve them, the students must build a society and find a way to survive.
By the end of the novel, I had become Rod Walker in my imagination, and when he led an expedition back to the planet, I was right there with him.
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein is probably most famous for Stranger in a Strange Land, published in 1961. It wasn’t my favorite novel back then, but it has grown on me over time.
The story centers on Valentine Michael Smith, a human born on Mars and raised by Martians. When he comes to Earth as a young man, he struggles to understand human customs, religion, relationships, and society. At the same time, his distinctly Martian way of thinking begins to challenge the beliefs of the people around him.
This novel gave us the word grok, meaning to understand something so completely that it becomes a part of you.
As I write this post, I’ve noticed the recurring theme of travel to other planets and adventure. I guess those are desires that have stayed with me.