One candle lit

...on my reading challenge birthday cake.  When I entered the time machine, I popped out in 1953.  The list of publications for that year seemed endless and I rushed off to the library to fill my book bag.  It seems a lot of years have passed since these books were published.  Not so many just sitting about waiting to be read.  If the books had any kind of longevity, they were being used for school reading and all copies were out - for the duration.

So, I was just picking from what I could find.  I had science fiction in my mind - here's what I found.  One Asimov novel.  One.  No Arthur C Clarke.  No Ray Bradbury.  No Sprague de Camp.  Not just the ones on my 1953 list but any title at all. 

So, I brought home this lonely little item and warmed it up with a good read.  I'd forgotten how good a story teller Isaac Asimov was.  I'd forgotten how clever he was with his predictions of what future life would be.  Or maybe, the predictions were so far-fetched that I couldn't relate back when I first read this series.  And, in some ways he didn't (or couldn't) go far enough.  It's truly amazing how far and fast technology has travelled. 

There were good guys and villains and there was conflict as seems to be the eternal human curse.  But the weapons were not so much lasers, tasers and other techno-tools.  The way to control is through the mind.  And I think that's going on every day, too, in our ever-changing present/future. I also appreciated his writing style and use of words.  Kind of old-fashioned but I didn't have to work really hard for the meaning. 

I've earned one candle.  And my latest trip to the library was more productive.  I snagged a William S Burroughs and a Lloyd C Douglas.  Talk about poles apart!  I've not read either of these before.