Monday, November 07, 2005
My childhood was a waste
Today I was reading a Spider Robinson book called "User Friendly." It is a collection of essays and short stories. In one of the essays, Spider Robinson tells how when he was six years old, his librarian directed him to the first book without pictures that he read all by himself. It was Spaceship Galileo, By Robert Heinlein. He was six. That's Kindergarten to first grade. Spaceship Galileo. Heinlein. Six years old. Chapters. I was reading at four, but the first thing I read with chapters was The Velveteen Rabbit in second grade. It was the final thing we read in my advanced reading class. I was seven. It was the longest thing I had ever read. I was boggled by it's incredible length, but I carried on and read the whole thing. I didn't even DISCOVER sci-fi until I was around 5th grade. What a waste. I frittered away my childhood. FRITTERED! I could have been reading sci-fi at four, even if I didn't hit Heinlein until later. I feel like such a failure. Apparently I was the imbecile that should have been in smart kid special ed. FRITTERED!!
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2 comments:
You're funny. ;) I think the first real books I read were Sarah Plain and Tall and Tom Sawyer in Second grade...so that's like 7/8....then in 3rd grade I liked the Sweet Valley High books...and then I read the Sword of Shannara, which in hindsight is a really stupid book, but at the time I thought it was the best book ever written....
Are you trying to make me feel bad?!? You read freakin Tom Sawyer in second grade? I didn't read the Sword of Shannara until I was in my twenties, and I like it, so you can shut your pie hole! :) I think the fact of the matter was that for some reason I felt like I always had to do the "right" thing. I had to be perfect, because that's what my parents expected. I remember feeling that way very very young. So as a result, I always did what was expected of me. In every way. They gave me age appropriate books, I read them. It never occured to me that I could go seek out books on my own, until much later. When I went to the school library, they pointed me to the books they thought I should read, and I read them. Lots of them. In school, I even toned down my art work and school work to match what the other kids were doing, so I'd be doing what was right. I guess I was weird. Wait, I still am!
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