I'm a middle aged woman who has been reading scifi since I was a kid. At the time, it was somehow weird, because girls weren't supposed to be into this. At first I must have been watching Thunderbirds, and I remember sneaking in to my elder brother's bedroom and finding a copy of one of the Asimov Foundation books.
The picture on the front must have attracted me - I think I was probably about 8 or 9, and I nicked it and read it. For sure it was one of the second two, because it took me at least ten or so years to get hold of Foundation. Then I snuck back and nicked the next - Second Foundation. Then I got started on the short stories. Then I found the tiny, tiny sci fi section in WHSmiths - tucked away next to the Religion and Poetry.
The first book I actually bought was AE Van Vogts' War against the Rull. Then I found James Blish (I think) and by that point it was too late. I was buying two or three a week. I learnt fairly quickly to keep quiet about my habit!
At some point in all this I watched Star Trek which was rather stunning since I'd never seen anything that was that close to what was going on in my head when I read, and I will still sit down and watch the original.
I've had down times since then, when I read other things - but I always end up coming back.
So what are my faves? Well I was late into Dune, but it has to rank very very high. I actually think my top of the list would be The Gods Themselves by Asimov, and Breakthrough by Richard Cowper. It's rather dated now (very 60's!) but I still love it. But then I'd have to consider the Null A novels. And the Saga of the Exiles. There's just too many and I love too many of them to be able to say what's the absolute favourite.
The My Science Fiction Life site is now closed to contributions. From this page you can see an archive of all the recollections made by this user.
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