I loved Arthur C Clarke’s books from when I was about 9 or 10. I read them all in the town library, after the librarian allowed me an ‘adult’ library ticket as I’d already read just about everything in the children’s section.
Wow, what an eye-opener his books were, what an imagination. How cool to be the man who ‘invented’ geo-synchronous satellites and space elevators (well, almost – certainly he popularised the ideas).
Childhood’s End is one of the first ‘great’ books I remember reading. And then Rendezvous with Rama in 1973, just wow. The Nine Billion Names of God, such a crackigng idea. And then 2001, what a cool guy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7304004.stm