In my senior year of High School, circa 1989. I changed schools, which sucked. Everyone knew each other and I knew no one. I classify this as the worst time of my life.
There was one positive thing that came from it. For some reason, with the transfer of schools I only needed to take 3 classes to graduate. So, I spent my free time in the school library. While searching the shelves I recognized a name, Asimov. As you may know, I am a Star Trek fan. I remembered reading in my stock of Star Trek paraphernalia that an Isaac Asimov was a consultant on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. At this point I had no idea who the man was. As a lad, I read only when assigned to. I spent most of my time watching Star Trek episodes, the Star Wars films, and cartoons (Transformers, Voltron, etc.). A shame I know.
Anyway, I picked up a non-fiction book written by Asimov. As you may know the man puts prolific into another category. The book was āExploring the Earth and the Cosmosā. It was an account of humanityās discovery of the world around them from prehistoric migrations to space exploration. I loved his conversational writing style. I could grasp and understand every concept so easily. I had to find out more about this man.
As circumstances happen, I was walking through a street fair and there was a book stand with rows and rows of old paperbacks. I spotted Asimov. I picked up the book. The guy behind the stand said, āAh āFoundationā. Thatās his best.ā My furrowed brow expressed my ignorance. āYouāve never read this? Youāve got to read this.ā Perhaps it was the āI grok Spockā T-shirt. He grabbed all three novels and said, ā3 bucks. Itāll be the best money you ever spend.ā Over the next month I tore through all three and he was correct. Best money I ever spent.
