My Life in Books: Robert Heinlein
In last week's discussion of Anne McCaffrey, I noted that I didn't clearly remember exactly when my tastes shifted toward science fiction and fantasy, but noted that it certainly happened before seventh grade. After I wrote that, I remembered that I read at least some Robert Heinlein in the fifth grade.
My first exposure to Heinlein was the collection of future history stories titled The Past Through Tomorrow. My parents had an old beat up copy of it, which I beat up even further until almost every page was falling out. I also have distinct memories of reading To Sail Beyond the Sunset in fifth grade, which to be honest is probably not the sort of book that a fifth grader should be reading. Or maybe, given how I turned out, it's exactly the sort of book a fifth grader should be reading? I'm not sure. My family owned that book too, which they must have bought new since it came out in 1987, but I don't know if that was my mother or father's doing.
Anyway, it's weirdly fitting that the first Heinlein novel I recall reading was actually the last one published in his lifetime. From there, I made it a point to read as much Heinlein as I could find. I suspect I've missed a few of the short stories, but I know that by the time my family went to Australia in 2004 I was very excited to read the never before published For Us, The Living because by that point I had read every other extant Heinlein novel. Granted, I read them in a weird order. I read most of the famous juveniles like Have Space Suit Will Travel as an adult, and most of the adult novels like Friday and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress in high school.
I'm not sure doing a more traditional order would have made much of a difference to my enjoyment of them. By the time I read the juveniles, they mostly felt pretty dates, not because the stories weren't well done but because the portrayals of planets in the solar system, particularly Venus, have been proven to be completely incorrect by later scientific exploration. All the planets featuring swamps on Venus, for instance, seem a little weird now that we know it's completely inhospitable to human life.
I still own a large pile of Heinlein books, inherited (or stolen) from my parents or picked up from various discard bins and used bookstores piecemeal. I rarely re-read them, and I expect that one day many of them will leave my house forever. There are various short story collections I'll probably hold on to, and a few of the novels, but for the most part they don't have the long term emotional resonance that would make me hold on to them unread like Anne McCaffrey. I read them, I enjoyed them, I mostly don't have any need to re-read them or even keep them.
The one exception is Starship Troopers, which as previously noted was one of my favorite books in high school, and is in a small pile of books that I can't imagine every getting rid of.
Oh, they've got no time for glory in the Infantry.
Oh, they've got no use for praises loudly sung,
But in every soldier's heart in all the Infantry
Shines the name, shines the name of Rodger Young.
- The Ballad of Rodger Young
My first exposure to Heinlein was the collection of future history stories titled The Past Through Tomorrow. My parents had an old beat up copy of it, which I beat up even further until almost every page was falling out. I also have distinct memories of reading To Sail Beyond the Sunset in fifth grade, which to be honest is probably not the sort of book that a fifth grader should be reading. Or maybe, given how I turned out, it's exactly the sort of book a fifth grader should be reading? I'm not sure. My family owned that book too, which they must have bought new since it came out in 1987, but I don't know if that was my mother or father's doing.
Anyway, it's weirdly fitting that the first Heinlein novel I recall reading was actually the last one published in his lifetime. From there, I made it a point to read as much Heinlein as I could find. I suspect I've missed a few of the short stories, but I know that by the time my family went to Australia in 2004 I was very excited to read the never before published For Us, The Living because by that point I had read every other extant Heinlein novel. Granted, I read them in a weird order. I read most of the famous juveniles like Have Space Suit Will Travel as an adult, and most of the adult novels like Friday and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress in high school.
I'm not sure doing a more traditional order would have made much of a difference to my enjoyment of them. By the time I read the juveniles, they mostly felt pretty dates, not because the stories weren't well done but because the portrayals of planets in the solar system, particularly Venus, have been proven to be completely incorrect by later scientific exploration. All the planets featuring swamps on Venus, for instance, seem a little weird now that we know it's completely inhospitable to human life.
I still own a large pile of Heinlein books, inherited (or stolen) from my parents or picked up from various discard bins and used bookstores piecemeal. I rarely re-read them, and I expect that one day many of them will leave my house forever. There are various short story collections I'll probably hold on to, and a few of the novels, but for the most part they don't have the long term emotional resonance that would make me hold on to them unread like Anne McCaffrey. I read them, I enjoyed them, I mostly don't have any need to re-read them or even keep them.
The one exception is Starship Troopers, which as previously noted was one of my favorite books in high school, and is in a small pile of books that I can't imagine every getting rid of.
Oh, they've got no time for glory in the Infantry.
Oh, they've got no use for praises loudly sung,
But in every soldier's heart in all the Infantry
Shines the name, shines the name of Rodger Young.
- The Ballad of Rodger Young