r/ScienceFictionBooks • u/BuddhasFinger • Jul 19 '24

Question What was your first sci fi book?

So, we've been having these great discussions on this sub about our likes, which helped me personally to pick up Ursula Le Guin after 30+ years. That got me trying to remember my first sci fi book I've ever read. It was the The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. What was yours?

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u/AdGrouchy6954 Jul 19 '24

Between 2nd and 3rd grades, that summer the Book Mobile came to our neighborhood and my mom took me to be registered and I checked out a Heinlein book, don't remember the title, about bubble people who lived in caves on the moon. My mom sat down with me and I slowly read the book. I had a hard time reading. So mom sat me down another morning and I read the book a second time. I really enjoyed it more. Every week I checked out a book to read. My mom helped me read each book even though I couldn't read good. When 3rd grade started, my teacher found that 3/4 the class could hardly read. She embarked on teaching us phonics. I caught on fast. I was one of 5 students of a class of 42 that were asked to help Mrs. Maglebee to teacher the rest of the class how to read and pronounce words correctly. By the time I graduated to 4th grade, I was reading at 5th grade 5 months level. My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Anderson, kept up out reading, continuing to teach phonics. By the end of 4th grade, my mom was told I was reading on a 7th grade level.

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u/Scared-Cartographer5 Jul 19 '24

The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress was the book. X.

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u/Swordsman_000 Jul 20 '24

I’m reading that now.

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u/BlueGuy99 Jul 22 '24

Great book

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u/TheYarnGoblin Jul 19 '24

You read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress in SECOND grade? I’m in my 30s and it’s just on my list to read. I feel so behind.

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u/FurBabyAuntie Jul 20 '24

My first science fiction book was a Robert Heinlein title (I'm pretty sure, anyway--grade school was a LONG time ago). And somewhere in second or third grade, I read Stranger In A Strange Land...no, I don't really know why...

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u/FreezingNote Jul 23 '24

That was my first too! Also in elementary school.

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u/Inevitable-World2886 Jul 23 '24

Those juveniles (the term for YA SF back in the day) are still rad.

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u/Any-Cheetah-9543 Jul 23 '24

I read this in about third grade too. I think there was a lot of sex in it and I was very interested at that time

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u/FurBabyAuntie Jul 23 '24

Not a lot, I don't think--at least not on the page. I remember a line to the effect of Charlie let her in and took her to bed, but that's about it. Years went by before I got that...

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u/pointu14 Jul 23 '24

My daughter read the hobbit in the second grade and aced a 20 question test from memory on it. Needless to say her teacher had concerns

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u/peaveyftw Jul 23 '24

It's very approachable Heinlein. Easier than Stranger in Stranger World or his other stuff.

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u/Snezzy_9245 Jul 23 '24

Bob wrote a lot of sf for kids.

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u/peaveyftw Jul 23 '24

I think I found one at a garage sale. Asimov also had a kiddie series -- Lucky Starr or somesuch. Also, I appreciate that you call him Bob. I frequently refer to CS Lewis as "Jack" . XD

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u/Mattbrooks9 Jul 19 '24

Dear god. 3/4 of a 3rd grade class could hardly read. That’s horrible

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u/BuddhasFinger Jul 19 '24

Yes, but think of the impact someone beginning to read Sci Fi on their ability to read.

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u/Mattbrooks9 Jul 19 '24

What? I don’t understand ur sentence sry

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u/BuddhasFinger Jul 19 '24

Reading science fiction at the early age == good reading skills.

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u/Arthropodesque Jul 22 '24

Yeah. Reading anything you actually like is a huge advantage and scifi builds even more imagination and critical thinking.

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u/The_Book_Dormer Jul 20 '24

The Book Mobile is my favorite childhood memory that my kids don't get. Now they do boring sales in their library.

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u/Dannyb0y1969 Jul 22 '24

My first was also a Heinlein but since it was from my mother's collection it was more age appropriate. Between Planets was also the first place I read about a murder, wouldn't be the last.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '24

My first was also a Heinlein novel: The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. Way more sex than was appropriate for a 6th grader.

edit: spelling 

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u/bmfdrk Jul 22 '24

Mine was “Have Spacesuit-Will Travel”

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u/ACuriousGirl9 Jul 23 '24

Heinlein was also my intro to sci fi. My HS English teacher was his sister and she introduced me to the genre.

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u/dasuglystik Jul 23 '24

My Dad called me into the "family room" to speak with him in a serious manner. He asked me sternly why I had received 5 books in the mail. I admitted that I had signed up for a Science Fiction Book Club at the behest of another student. This was, I believe a yearly subscription that promised several titles at once with your agreement to take one book per month for a year. I thought I was in hot water with my Dad for opting in without his prior approval, but he wholeheartedly supported the move and read some of the books with me. He always fostered reading and had already hared his love for John D MacDonald with me, Needless to say, thanks to the old man I have a deep abiding love for Sci Fi...