MoreWrite

125 readers

3 users here now

post bits of your writing and links to stuff you’ve written here for constructive criticism.

if you post anything here try to specify what kind of feedback you would like. For example, are you looking for a critique of your assertions, creative feedback, or an unbiased editorial review?

if OP specifies what kind of feedback they'd like, please respect it. If they don't specify, don't take it as an invite to debate the semantics of what they are writing about. Honest feedback isn’t required to be nice, but don’t be an asshole.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Random Positivity Thread: Happy Book Memories (awful.systems)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

In the spirit of our earlier "happy computer memories" thread, I'll open one for happy book memories. What's a book you read that occupies a warm-and-fuzzy spot in your memory? What book calls you back to the first time you read it, the way the smell of a bakery brings back a conversation with a friend?

As a child, I was into mystery stories and Ancient Egypt both (not to mention dinosaurs and deep-sea animals and...). So, for a gift one year I got an omnibus set of the first three Amelia Peabody novels. Then I read the rest of the series, and then new ones kept coming out. I was off at science camp one summer when He Shall Thunder in the Sky hit the bookstores. I don't think I knew of it in advance, but I snapped it up and read it in one long summer afternoon with a bottle of soda and a bag of cookies.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I’ll never forget the Commodore 64 user manual. Don’t know if that counts as a book, but at least it was bound like one. It’s unimaginable for a computer manual today, but it contained a whole BASIC programming course, which was my first encounter with the whole topic of programming.

fuck yes, this is where it started for me too. I don’t have any love for BASIC as a language, but the idea that programming was central to being able to use the machine was incredible, because it normalized the ability to program. all of the documentation and most of the UX around the Commodore 64 and similar 80s micros was oriented around that idea: that programming isn’t scary or complicated, it’s a normal thing you should be familiar with in order to get the most out of your machine.