For me, it was a book called ‘The Outsiders’ by S.E Hinton. It is known as a literary classic these days, but it was quite hard hitting when it was released back in the 1960s.
In a nut shell; It is about a group of semi-impoverished greaser friends growing up in 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma, and all the life challenges they face, and how they react to prejudice against them whilst coping with family issues.
It was the first book that made me realise that some people in society don’t get it easy growing up, and I discovered what it meant to live on the ‘wrong side of town’ and what societal prejudice was. The outsiders was the first novel I read that brought up hard subjects like; domestic violence, alcoholism, street gang violence etc.
It was the first book to shatter my naive way of thinking about the world, at 13 years old! It is still one of my favourite stories to this day, and for all its slightly dark themes, I love the compassionate friendship and brotherhood that is displayed in this book!
Cosmos by Carl Sagan.
It made quite the impression on a 6 year old I can tell you what.
I didn’t read it until my late teens and I probably reread it like 5 times within the next year. I picked up everything i could on astronomy and physics (within my limited understanding) and tried to learn everything i could.
It seriously opened my eyes to trying to understand the universe, both right in front of us and far away.
I think I was 21 when it came out, and it blew my mind. Learned a lot. And info was not as easy to come by as it is today.
Exactly. If I wanted to know about cosmology and I did - then that was what was available to me in the 70s.