Re: What Was The First S-F Story You Ever Read? (Was: "Re: BookID: Old SciFi, Children in old Volcanic Caves in/on Moon...")

> Glenn P. wrote:
>
> > Just to start a New Thread, what was everyone's "first" Sci-Fi
book/story?


  Coming into this thread late (a function of the fact that I sadly only
have time to skim this ng once a week or so)- the first SF I *remember*
reading, at age 6, was Andre Norton's "Quest Crosstime".
  The book - a thick hardback- was mis-shelved as a children's book at the
tiny library in Gettysburg, PA, in the 60's; I don't think they HAD a
science fiction section, though they may have had a couple of shelves of
"YA" fiction.
  I distinctly recall that reading it was like having one of those vivid
dreams where each bit makes sense, but the whole doesn't; most likely
because the concept of alternate universes was a bit much for a 6-year-old.
<G>
  In fact, I didn't retain either the book's title or author in memory, but
the way it carried me into another world stuck in my mind & is still one of
my strongest memories of that particular library; 40 years later, I still
know exactly where it was shelved.
   (My other enduring memories are of the case of stuffed birds that sat in
the lobby, and the nasty librarian who wouldn't believe, even when my mother
verified the fact, that I had read some of the books I took out for the
summer reading program.)

  I didn't actually "discover" Norton until I was about 14, when I took
"Moon of Three Rings" and "Exiles of the Stars" out of a different library,
and was again transported.

   Oh, and the reason I now know what the first book actually was is that we
went to Gettysburg for a visit when I was in my 20's, and I went to the
library, and was able to walk straight to the book.
  Needless to say, I got a kick out of finding out what it actually was; I'd
re-read in paperback it at some point by then, without realizing that it was
the book which had given me such an extraordinary experience at 6.