Technically this could go in the Lit forum, but since it is more about your memories than the lit itself (and the quality thereof) I'm trying it here.
I started watched Star Trek in 1970 and I don't recall exactly how long after I started reading it, but it was most likely within a year.
I do remember being pleasantly surprised to discover Star Trek books at our corner drug store on the paperback shelves. I don't recall the drug store's name, but it was at the corner of Burnhamthorpe and Cawthra roads (in Mississauga, Ontario) next to the A&P grocery store. I don't recall exactly which book it was, but it was probably one of the early volumes of James Blish's episode adaptations. And soon after I went nuts over discovering Blish's novel Spock Must Die which was a completely new and original adventure not to be seen on television. After the first couple of books I was visiting that drug store every week on the lookout for new books and when I found them I'd race home to ask Mom or Dad for the 60 or 75 cents to get the book (I was only about 12 years old at the time). Not long after that I found issues of the Gold Key cimics in a nearby Variety store in their comics' shelves. Soon after I starting seeing some Trek paperbacks showing up in our school library.
Within a few years when my parents thought I was old enough I'd take the bus (or sometimes walk or ride my bike) to go to the newly built Square One shopping centre to check out the book stores, particularly W.H. Smith that was regularly carrying Star Trek books. And that became my most regular outlet to find the new books. W.H Smith is where I got the rest of the Blish books as well as where I saw the Alan Dean Foster Star Trek Log books first appear as well as the first Franz Jospeh reference books and the growing avalanche of other tie-in books.
Not long after that I began to take the bus and subway to get to downtown Toronto to check out a bookstore catering solely to science fiction and fantasy: Bakka Books on Queen Street East. That would soon become a periodic pilgrimage as well.
A consequence of reading those early Trek books was that (spurred by things that intrigued me in the show itself) I began reading other things like astronomy and history and such. I also began reading non Trek science fiction.
That's how it all started for me.
Anyone else?
I started watched Star Trek in 1970 and I don't recall exactly how long after I started reading it, but it was most likely within a year.
I do remember being pleasantly surprised to discover Star Trek books at our corner drug store on the paperback shelves. I don't recall the drug store's name, but it was at the corner of Burnhamthorpe and Cawthra roads (in Mississauga, Ontario) next to the A&P grocery store. I don't recall exactly which book it was, but it was probably one of the early volumes of James Blish's episode adaptations. And soon after I went nuts over discovering Blish's novel Spock Must Die which was a completely new and original adventure not to be seen on television. After the first couple of books I was visiting that drug store every week on the lookout for new books and when I found them I'd race home to ask Mom or Dad for the 60 or 75 cents to get the book (I was only about 12 years old at the time). Not long after that I found issues of the Gold Key cimics in a nearby Variety store in their comics' shelves. Soon after I starting seeing some Trek paperbacks showing up in our school library.
Within a few years when my parents thought I was old enough I'd take the bus (or sometimes walk or ride my bike) to go to the newly built Square One shopping centre to check out the book stores, particularly W.H. Smith that was regularly carrying Star Trek books. And that became my most regular outlet to find the new books. W.H Smith is where I got the rest of the Blish books as well as where I saw the Alan Dean Foster Star Trek Log books first appear as well as the first Franz Jospeh reference books and the growing avalanche of other tie-in books.
Not long after that I began to take the bus and subway to get to downtown Toronto to check out a bookstore catering solely to science fiction and fantasy: Bakka Books on Queen Street East. That would soon become a periodic pilgrimage as well.
A consequence of reading those early Trek books was that (spurred by things that intrigued me in the show itself) I began reading other things like astronomy and history and such. I also began reading non Trek science fiction.
That's how it all started for me.
Anyone else?
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