A History of Reading

I learned to read at an early age and began my journey to high myopia soon after. One has to remember that a child in the 1950’s had no screens, no music choices except crude radio and records one could purchase, no news except for newspapers and magazines, and very little in the way of television. What was offered on our tiny black-and-white television screen was simple, adult, and unwatchable by today’s standards. Kids’ programs were few and scheduled for after-school or Saturday mornings. You could play outside or read–that was about it. So reading helped me survive childhood!

My early years of existence took place in Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. This was when the Cleveland Indians MLB team had a garish team logo, before Lake Erie was polluted and recovered, and before the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was built. Heck, this was before rock and roll really began. I remember hearing Elvis from a car radio in Cleveland. There were no musicals, concerts, few movies, and no other media events for me growing up in Ohio. Reading was available and inexpensive and took me away from boredom. Boredom is a terrible enemy, and I swear, it can inflict fatal wounds to your psyche.

By the time our family moved to Denver, in 1959, I could read well and had a two year-old brother. I was ready to Rock and Roll (what I mean by READING, since in 1959 I didn’t know what rock and roll was.). Bespectacled and entering the second grade in Colorado, I was quiet, teased, and well-read. I loved the library. Rows and rows of escape from boredom were available to me.

I had also become enamored of comic books in those early years. Available in any drug store, book stores, and grocery stores, comic books (Superman, Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, and occasionally, Spiderman) opened my imagination to whole other worlds of possibility. There were no wasted minutes of boredom to rattle me anymore as long as I had something to read. It became my superpower.

Academically, I survived. I had no big academic ambition at that time–it was all survival mode. My grades were very average but my reading was very good. In fourth grade I read at tenth grade level. In sixth grade I placed second in a school-wide spelling contest despite being a C+ student, and my teachers all wondered how come this kid wasn’t doing better with his grades.

But I always read. I read what I wanted to read, and would often rather read than watch television. I was a different kid. By the time I was in middle school I was reading adult novels, becoming infatuated with Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels (‘Goldfinger’ and gradually the remaining novels would come out in paperback at that time), plus I discovered the huge body of science fiction available in the 1960’s. My parents had no idea what I was reading. Luckily for them, there were virtually no porn or terribly risque writings available to me–nor would I have understood them, anyway!

Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Madeleine L’Engle and countless others became my friends. These writers swept me away from the ho-hum parts of my life, into places where imagination and thought expanded my mind. I wasn’t obsessed with reading–I did have friends, other interests, and a life. But books were a large part of my life.

There was little in the way of movies or television related to science fiction in those days. On television we gravitated from The Twilight Zone, then Outer Limits, to a franchise that still exists today. In 1966 a unique offering, Star Trek, began broadcasting. That was a life-changer for many of us, with special effects (that now seem so crude) and well-written plot lines, some by famous authors.

Viet Nam and civil rights intruded into our lives with daily images on the television news. Fiction writings reflected these realities, and though reading helped one escape reality, reality definitely bled into fiction. My reading was for pleasure, but authors in the 1960’s gradually became political in their writings. Thus reading opened up new worlds for me that reflected our reality, our politics, and our lives.

In fact. reading probably led me to who I am today. It expanded my mind, challenged my perceptions, and probably had some effect on my overall personality. I still read voraciously and hope to read as long as I am able. I will never give up!

Thank you reading–I am still in love with you!