David Lubkin wrote:
>
> A couple people have mentioned reading fiction. What I should have
> mentioned is that I do enjoy reading and contemplating philosophy
> when it is an integral part of a good story.
>
> In fact, I think that I developed a lot of my personal philosophy
> from an amalgam of Heinlein, Doc Smith, Star Trek, Gordy Dickson,
> etc. -- tolerance, individual liberty (freedom *plus* responsibility),
> thinking for yourself, honesty, perseverance ...
>
> Mostly read when I was a child or early teen.
>
> Some days I think the best thing we could do to help this country
> would be to buy a copy of _Citizen of the Galaxy_ for every
> middle-schooler.
>
I suspect that Heinlein and Smith are high on the list of most list subscribers. I have the good fortune to have an aunt who was a neighbor of Heinlein as a child. When I was reading my first Heinlein book, (Star Beast) in junior high she caught me at it, told me about her relationship to him, and proceeded to describe what a sexist he was (my aunt was a bit of a beatnik/flower child type, and is a teacher and NEA member, of all things...;) ) as a result I was discouraged from reading Heinlein for about 15 minutes.... ;) At that age, I really enjoyed the idea of divorcing one's parents, as one of the main characters in the book did.
Personally, I think that L. Neil Smith's novel _Pallas_ is the modern day _Atlas Shrugged_, only with a few less 20 page soliloquiys....
Mike Lorrey