Rants & Observations

Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Decided recently to go back and read the entire Foundation series again. It had been a long longc time since I had picked up this book. To be honest, I fondly remember the hours of adventure Asimov's stories provided me as a teenager. In reading it again, however, I soon began to wonder if something had been lost over the years. The story didn't hold my attention like it had all those years ago.

I realized after about half the book however, it was not the book that had lost something but rather me. I'm no longer that young idealistic and naive boy who would rather have read science fiction than breath. That was a time in my life where I had planned to be out there by this time, not re-reading books from my youth. Stories were going to be told about me. Stories about me setting foot on Mars for the first time. Stories that never got written because back then astronauts didn't wear glasses and a fifteen year old boy had his dreams destroyed one day by an eye doctor. If I had not ended up with glasses back then we would have been on Mars by now. But it wasn't meant to be. Just like I didn't become a rock star a couple of years later.

But in the end, Asimov's story took a Middle Aged White Guy back to a time when all those things were possible. And that's what a book is supposed to do ... take you to a different place.

posted by Paul @ 4:05 PM