Friday, June 18, 2010

A Look in the Past, A View of the Future



Talk about a blast from the past. I was cruising the highways of the Internet when I saw an article about the later incarnation of Tom Swift and one of my childhood heroes, Tom Swift, Jr. , inventor extraordinaire.

I remember reading these books penned by Victor Appleton (a house pseudonym by the publishing firm). I would usually borrow these books from the school library or from the Union Church library in Makati. These books-- together with Hardy Boys and the Bobbsey Twins, both mystery series-- formed the bulwark of my childhood reading days.

With Tom Swift, I marveled at the gadgets and devices that walked, flew and thrived on the pages. And how can anyone not get a kick out of the books with titles like "The Flying Lab" or "The Jetmarine" or "The Ultrasonic Cycloplane" or "The Space Solartron" or...?

At the same time, I enjoyed tremendously the adventures of Swift and co., ranging from their trip to the moon to capturing a meteorite that turned out to have a core of sapphire (I think). It didn't matter that all of these inventions and adventures were far-out fictional: they felt real to me when I read them.

I suppose if there was ever an indication that I would end up a fantasy/science-fiction bookreader of some magnitude, I can point a finger at these books and say, "This." It does make me wonder why the Hardy Boys didn't take but Tom Swift did, why SF/F stayed with me whereas mystery stories didn't.

2 comments:

fantaghiro23 said...

Hi! I've lurked in your blog before, and I can't remember if I ever left a comment.:) Anyway, I'm Honey and I came up with a list of Filipino book bloggers in my blog, at least those I could remember. My former co-teacher Katz reminded me of you, so I was wondering if you'd mind being added.

Admittedly, the list so far is dominated by book bloggers who mostly talk about foreign books, myself included, so I think it'd be great to add blogs that talk about the local publishing scene, too. Anyway, let me know if it's ok to add your blog. Thanks!

banzai cat said...

hey! it's no problem :-)

say hi to ms katz for me!