Reading in the 1950s

I was 2 in 1950 and so I was 12 in 1960. I couldn't sleep tonight and started thinking about my 30s in the 1980s and then I jumped on back to the 1950s and all the books that inspired me to read starting about 1956. I think the first books without many pictures that I got into were written by Hugh Lofting(in other words the Dr. Dolittle series of books). However, I had always thought (Incorrectly as an adult) that Hugh Lofting also wrote the "Freddy the Pig" series. However, when I researched this on Wikipedia tonight I realized the "Freddy the Pig" series was actually written by an American writer, Walter R. Brooks who wrote 26 books about Freddy the Pig and his friends from 1926 to 1958. I think more than any other series of books, Hugh Lofting and Walter R. Brooks(I discovered only tonight) influenced my reading more than anything else.

Since I was born naturally telepathic when people told me that one couldn't communicate with animals I always knew this was wrong. So when Dr. Dolittle and Freddy the Pig I began to read when I was about 8 years old it opened up a whole new world.

I'm still trying to remember a series of children's fantasy fiction that had these two boys starting on on the northeast coast of America and getting on board a Schooner and having adventures with magic ropes and Mongolia and other lands that I was really intrigued by as well. It sort of struck the Cabin boy type of consciousness when boys apprenticed at 12 or 13 and eventually became 1st mates and Captains of ships over the years of serving aboard a merchant ship. So I found myself very taken with this series and this led to me reading Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein and then Isaac Asimov's sci fi books as well and then ARthur C. Clarke. I think I read all of Robert Heilein's books eventually and most of Isaac Asimov's as well. As an adult I read Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers about Louis WU and all their adventures on Ringworld.

When Star Trek came out on TV with Captain Kirk(William Shatner) I made it a point to be sure my parents bought a color TV. Star Trek Debuted in 1966 when I was just turning 18. However, I think color had gotten pretty good and we might have bought a color set by 1964, possibly, especially on NBC.

But all the amazing experiences I had reading through several of my summers in Glendale, California outside of one of the libraries or on the lawn in my front or backyard took me to places that stretched my imagination to the limit. Though I had a Newspaper route by age 10 and worked a lot after school from age 10 on I always had time to read science fiction(if it was good) and continue expanding my imagination horizons both scientifically, spiritually and philosophically.