As a very young reader I was infatuated with fairy tales (Brothers Grimm,
Hans Christian Anderson), Greek and Roman mythology, L. Frank Baum's Oz
books, etc. Then, in sixth grade (1966), I read a marginally SF/Fantasy
book called 101 Balloons by (I think) *Someone* du Bois about a journey
around the world carried by 101 balloons. The crew of the balloon craft had
many fantastic adventures with strange societies all around the world--very
interesting and exciting to a kid living in rural Idaho. Shortly thereafter
I found a book called The Red Planet (not Heinlein's novel) about a trip to
Mars, which is inhabited by intellegent vegetable creatures. Once I
discovered the SF shelf at the public library it was all over; I remember a
series of anthologies edited by Andre Norton, I found The Fantastic Journey
to the Mushroom Planet (or something like that), I discovered Ray Bradbury,
H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Robert A. Heinlein, Edgar Rice Burroughs and all
the rest of the ever-expanding crew, so basically all of my early reading
preferences were based on the output of SF writers and my tastes very
slowly expanded to the point where I could begin to enjoy reading stories
outside of the SF field (though its still the place I love the best).
Cheers,
Carey Wilson
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