Books in my Library by Connie Cockrell
I was a pre-teen when I discovered science fiction. I was a reader before then and not the easy stuff either. I read Gone With the Wind when I was twelve. I wonder now what the librarian who checked out the book for me thought but she never said a word about the appropriateness of that title for a 12-year-old.
My first SciFi authors? E.E. “Doc” Smith, Robert Heinlein, Issac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, all sadly gone now. No one told me that those books were for boys. I read through them avidly and reread them over and over. If you haven’t read Doc Smith’s the Lensman, it can be kind of dated but the last book in the series really shows women in a strong light and the ultimate conclusion must have been controversial at the time. Probably still is. No spoilers, read the series.
Then I found Andre Norton and Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey, who is thankfully still with us. As a retired USAF Master Sergeant, military SciFi really appeals to me and Elizabeth Moon’s books are a delight to read as are C.J. Cherryh’s. You can tell from the author list that I’m as comfortable with the hard SciFi as with the softer SciFi and fantasy. I love them all.
But it’s not just SciFi, mystery is also a favorite. Who hasn’t read Miss Marple by Agatha Christie, or Ellery Queen or Dashielle Hammett or Raymond Chandler, even Issac Asimov wrote mysteries. Modern mystery authors range from Dan Brown and Steven King to Mary Higgins Clark and Robin Cook. So many delicious tales from cosy’s to hard-boiled detective stories.
There are so many books out there and really, so very little time. I hope I’ve mentioned an author or a book that piques your interest. Go to your library and pick up something you haven’t tried before. I think you’ll like it.
The Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour is sponsored by the website Forward Motion (http://www.fmwriters.com). The tour is you, the reader, travelling the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. There are all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s always something new and different to enjoy. If you want to get to know the nearly twenty other writers check out the rest of the tour at http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com! Up next: Jean Schara
I was like you I remember two of my aunts stopping me from reading Lolita when I was sixteen or seventeen, I did not understand why then was a classic bookworm, absolutely inexperienced about innuendos but now I know why their eyes were bulging out 🙂
LOL, yes. I never shared with my parents what I was reading. I wasn’t trying to hide anything, they just weren’t interested.