I’m halfway through listening to the latest episode of Galactic Suburbia, in which one of the discussions is the speculative fiction books they read during their first foray into the genre.
It’s interesting hearing them discuss the books they consciously chose as genre when they were teenagers (David Eddings being popular) and then, as they thought back, how many books they read previously that were genre.
As always when I listen to this podcast, I’ve been reflecting on my own reading history.
The first time I became truly aware that I was reading fantasy was in early high school. I remember vividly the Magician books being dreadfully popular, to the point where there was a waiting list for each one. As curious then as I am now, I started reading them. And promptly fell in love with Feist and fat fantasy epics. I moved on to the series he co-wrote with Janny Wurts, the Empire books (which remain my favourites of his, along with Faerie Tale). I read some Eddings, but was never a huge fan of his. Then I joined the Doubleday SF and Fantasy mail order book club and was lost. I discovered an awful lot of good authors through that club in the days before the internet.
And thinking back further, to some of the Young Adult books I read, before they were really classified into genre. I missed stuff like The Hobbit and the Narnia books somehow (I blame it on having parents who didn’t read sf themselves – though I read a lot of stuff like Alice in Wonderland and the Faraway Tree books, which are arguably genre). I remember scouring the YA shelf at the local library for anything that looked interesting. Same goes for the book sales catalogues we got at school.
The first one I remember vividly is a book called We Are Tam, which no one else reading this has probably read. As far as I can tell, it’s well out of print. I sold my copy of it, regrettably (I used to sell of my books all the time when I was younger so I could buy new ones, something I regret a lot now). It was pure science fiction, with a time travel plot. I’m pretty sure it was set in Australia, as well, though I’d have to do some googling to confirm that.
The other two books I know people will recognise: Margaret Mahy’s Aliens in the Family and The Changeover. I vividly remember clamouring to have the television to myself while the miniseries adaption of Aliens in the Family was screened on ABC in the blessed 5:30pm timeslot. I have copies of both of these, thankfully, and must reread them sometime soon. I also must hunt down some of Mahy’s other work one of these days.
It’s interesting, looking back, at some part of that path that led me to where I am now, a huge sf and fantasy fan and writer. My father reads a lot, but mostly crime and spy novels, though he has a good deal of sf in his library now, mostly thanks to me getting him addicted to space opera like Peter F. Hamilton. Neither of my siblings are huge readers, and neither of them are huge genre fans. It’s going to be interesting to watch my son’s reading habits as he grows up in a house full of books and with two parents who are both voracious genre readers.
