My First Time and Why I'll Never Forget It

My Passion for Books and Reading

 have a passion for books. I grew up reading mostly science fiction and fantasy. I didn’t care about genre labels. All I wanted was a good story.

     For the most part my childhood reading habits went unsupervised. My parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dysfunctional, were too busy giving meaning to Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing. So I was left on my own to select whatever books I wanted. I had children’s books donated by well meaning relatives. My favorites were Where the Wild Things Are and a book of Russian Fairy Tales complete with glorious illustrations of the Grey Wolf, Baba Yaga and the everlasting Firebird. But I grew out of the picture books quickly and like all good American children I wanted more.

     One of my best and clearest memories is of the day I bought my first two mass market paperbacks. Those compact rectangles were the books adults read. They had hundreds of pages not five. Paperback books harbored classified grown-up information.

     I was in a mall with my mother and she wanted to go off and do her shopping thing. She explained that I had a choice: I could ride the merry-go-round or stay in the bookstore. I was eight. And yes, I was to stay by myself (I did mention her name was Mrs. Dysfunctional). You know what I chose – the bookstore. Allowance in hand I entered heaven.

     I glanced at the children’s books but they were for babies. I wanted what the big people had.

     Those paperback and hardbound book covers were mysterious, carnal, colorful and forbidden. I studied every shelf, leafed through what I could reach and then, oh yes and then, I spotted the two books I wanted. They were simply named and had cover art that ignited the curiosity synapses in my developing brain.

     The first was called R is for Rocket. And the second S is for Space. They were written by the same person: Ray Bradbury. Rockets and aliens and Mars, oh my! I was hooked! I clutched those books. They were the only copies and no one, NO ONE, was going to take them from me.

     The idea of choosing only one was out of the question. I had to have both. And I did. When the mater finally returned I proudly displayed my treasures and was told to “pay for ‘those things’ so we can get out of here. The traffic is going to be a nightmare.”

     That night I heard “The Sound of Summer Running” and “The Fog Horn” and traveled to the center of our solar system to retrieve “The Golden Apples of the Sun.” I had gone to a place even better than heaven. I had entered outer space.

     Ray Bradbury is still my favorite author. He was my first and, as we all know, you never forget your first.

I never stopped my romance with books - fiction, non-fiction, science fiction and fantasy. I read mysteries, thrillers, Steampunk, contemporary, classics (yeah, I enjoy reading Charles Dickens). Whatever promises to be a good read.
     When I was a child books took me boldly where no eight-year old had gone before.
     As an adult books keep my brain, and my heart, bigger on the inside.

If you have a special memory of books please feel free to share it in the comments section. Readers love to exchange stories.

Keywords: Ray Bradbury, reading, books, first book, short stories,