# What Turned You On To Science Fiction? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 28, 2000, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560 "2000-12-28T20:28:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/21 "2000-12-29T05:48:13Z")
DrFidelius > [@](#): > > I discovered written SF through a book whose title I’ve forgotten that involved a stegosaur in the American southwest. _The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek_. I don’t remember the author. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/22 "2000-12-29T07:20:05Z")
I think it was Godzilla movies. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/23 "2000-12-29T07:38:00Z")
My maternal grandfather was heavily into SF (NOT sci-fi, as he would tell you)(and as I will also tell you) and I started reading SF/fantasy when I was about 8. My grandfather would occasionally give me suggestions, and I was pretty much allowed to freely browse his considerable collection. I wasn’t allowed to browse his Playboy stash (nobody knew about it til after he died) but I could borrow many of his books and read them. He was a pompous old bastard, but he did give me this hobby, so he wasn’t all bad. Of course, by the time I was 10 or so, I was spending my own money on paperback SF novels and collections, and checking stuff out of the local library, so I was able to read fantasy (which Grandpa disliked, for the most part). My parents disapproved of just about all SF/fantasy, but they allowed me to read it, for the most part. I remember that I was occasionally grounded from reading SF/fantasy as a punishment. Of course, this only made that genre even more attractive… ---
**Author:** ![Bawdysurfer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/90db22/32.png) [@Bawdysurfer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bawdysurfer)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/24 "2000-12-29T11:25:57Z")
Edgar Rice Burroughs took me for the first time into the pleasures of off-planet fantasy. A virginal copy of _Tanar Of Pellucidar_ and I shared the journey and were both quite spent after multiple rereads. Burroughs has a fair body of thoroughly readable work. ---
**Author:** ![Phobos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Phobos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phobos)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/25 "2000-12-29T14:06:07Z")
hmm…I don’t recall a defining moment, but it probably had something to do with seeing Star Wars when it came out in theaters and watching Creature Double Feature on Saturdays. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/26 "2000-12-29T17:18:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mbh \* > \*\*DrFidelius > > > [@](#): > > > > I discovered written SF through a book whose title I’ve forgotten that involved a stegosaur in the American southwest. > > _The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek_. I don’t remember the author. \*\* God, I loved that book as a kid! Here’s the info, from Bibliofind: Evelyn Sibley Lampman: The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek Totally freaked out a grade-school teacher who assigned a “what pet do you want?” paper. I wanted a dinosaur. Veb ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/27 "2000-12-29T18:10:58Z")
My mother. I remember watching Outer Limits, Night Gallery, Star Trek, Dark Shadows and the Twilight Zone with my mom before I was old enough to be watching that stuff and which probably accounts for my rather vivid imagination. 🙂 I think the first Sci-fi I read was Stranger in a Strange Land and Have Spacesuit, will Travel in 5th or 6th grade. It’s been so long, I can’t be sure, but that’s one of my earliest recollections. ---
**Author:** ![dal\_timgar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@dal\_timgar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dal_timgar)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/28 "2000-12-29T19:36:55Z")
Star Surgeon by Alan E. Nourse, read that in 1961 at age 9. was hooked on sci-fi since then. was watching the start of the space race on TV and reading about colonies in the asteroid belt revolting against earth. the nuns didn’t teach squat about science. i was building model rockets by 7th grade. who needs nuns. was able to order a copy of Star Surgeon from [amazon.com](http://amazon.com). took them weeks to find and cost $60. Dal Timgar ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2000, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/29 "2000-12-30T00:34:20Z")
Bawdysurfer wrote: > [@](#): > > Edgar Rice Burroughs took me for the first time into the pleasures of off-planet fantasy. A virginal copy of _Tanar Of Pellucidar_ and I shared the journey and were both quite spent after multiple rereads. Burroughs has a fair body of thoroughly readable work. So, did the Earth move for you, too? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Uniball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Uniball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniball)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2000, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/30 "2000-12-30T02:10:58Z")
Erin Gray. ---
**Author:** ![Gilligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Gilligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilligan)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2000, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/31 "2000-12-30T02:56:47Z")
My father had a bookcase full of paperback SF short story collections from the forties and fifties. Things like “The Year’s Best SF from _Astounding Science Fiction, 1952_”. I grew up on these, and they gave me a permanent preference for short stories vs. novels. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2000, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/32 "2000-12-30T02:56:56Z")
In the sixth grade I had a fantastic teacher(his first year) who liked science fiction and fantasy. It was also the first year of the original Star Trek. Mr. Bradbury had us write sci-fi stories for practice. He read us a chapter of The Hobbit each day. All these things together got me “into it”. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2000, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/33 "2000-12-30T03:09:41Z")
Well, apart from watching Star Trek, I’d say it was Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, when I was in 5th grade, then sneaking a read of Haldeman’s The Forever War when I was a few years older than that. I was hooked forever. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2000, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/34 "2000-12-30T03:14:02Z")
I can’t remember **not** being interested in science fiction. My older brother was into it, so I got lots of exposure to it. We had a vinyl 45 with a “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet” story on it (“From the rocket fields of the Academy/to the far flung stars of outer space/We’re space cadets training to be/ready for dangers we may face!”) Don’t know if this qualifies, but we also had a 78 of the popular kids record “By Rocket to the Moon.” Kind of SF/educational. It contains a ditty that I learned the names of the planets from (superseded by Schoolhouse Rock’s Interplanet Janet, I believe). My brother recorded a reel-to-reel tape which contained two episodes of the radio show “X Minus One.” The episodes were “Early Model” and “Man’s Best Friend.” I played that tape **hundreds** of times when I was a kid. I recently listened to MP3s of those two episodes, and when I would hear a line, about 2/3 of the time I could say the next line exactly, including the actor’s interpretation. I have definite memories of “Science Fiction Theater.” Also, in the early 60s WGN broadcast the “Flash Gordon” serial on Sunday mornings. “Twilight Zone” came a little later. Books - I also read “Spaceship Under the Apple Tree” at some point, also from a bookmobile (in Chicago). A bit later I read the “Tom Corbett” books, and still later borrowing my brother’s copies of Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, and others. Asimov is still my favorite. Miscellaneous: the Classics Illustrated comics of “War of the Worlds” and “The Time Machine” and some sporadic SF comics. Don’t know if Superman comics _et al._ would qualify. Also one or two Tom Corbett ViewMaster adventures. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2000, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560/35 "2000-12-30T03:23:08Z")
I’m embarrassed to say it, but for me it was Andre Norton’s “Galactic Derelict”. I was in 5th grade, and I went on to read all of her books before I ever discovered there were other SF authors, who wrote much better than she did! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-turned-you-on-to-science-fiction/47560.md?page=1)