No wonder I find the tone and perspective of Instapundit to be so compatible with my own! Glenn Reynolds, the author of that blog, recently wrote: “I was influenced a lot by Robert Heinlein, Arthur Clarke, and Isaac Asimov, but more by their entire body of works than by any particular book.” That describes me almost perfectly. During my formative years (junior high and high school), I was influenced by those men far more than by any teacher or subject I encountered in a classroom.
I should mention, though, that I was able to immerse myself in the works of Heinlein, Clarke, and Asimov because the public-school libraries were so well stocked with them. The inescapable conclusion is that my school librarians had more influence on me than the teachers did. I wonder: is this typical of my generation?
I posted a couple of years ago about how a book I once grabbed at random from a public-school library had a lasting effect on me. Given how impressionable we all are at that age, and how accessible those books are, I imagine it’s not an unusual phenomenon.
But I wonder whether even the school librarians really deserve the credit. How much control does a public-school librarian really have over what books the library has in its collection? I’d guess that public schools have to take what they can get, particularly if they’re establishing a new library from scratch. If someone decided to donate a large collection of classic science fiction books, I doubt the school would turn it down.
Only the members of your generation who love to read were so affected, and you know that that group is a minority. With reference to Bob’s comment, school librarians have a great deal to do with what fills the shelves, and teachers do, too. Every year there are funds available for teachers to order books which relate to the curriculum. There is a basic list, too, for a librarian who is building a library from scratch. Surely Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein are on that list.