User:Phileas

The story of my life

As a kid I used to read lots of adventure books - Robinson Crusoe and some of the Jules Verne novels were definitely my favourites.

I can't clearly remember the year when I found this paperback in the small SF section of the small library in my small home town. That happened in the early 90s - I think I was about fourteen or so. The title was Diesseits der Dämmerung and the guy who wrote it was Arthur C. Clarke. Never heard of him, but I thought he must be pretty famous because his name was printed way larger than the title itself. The book was a German reissue of Against the Fall of Night by the way. I just loved it. After that I've hardly read anything else than SF. Later Clarke became my favourite writer - although my all-time-favourite novels are not necessarily by him.

Today I'm a software developer with way to less spare time for reading books. I had never much of a problem with understanding English, since I grew up with computers. Every program and manual was written in English and I had to teach myself English when I was a kid. Furthermore I like to watch movies in their original language, which is either English or something else subbed in English (Germans like to dub everything so there were almost no German subbed versions before the DVD age). However, regarding books I've stuck with German without any particular reason - except a few novels and non-fiction books. Currently I'm trying get more English books - if their original language that is, of course. I just started to collect some of Clarke's first editions. This is where the ISFDB comes in handy. I'm glad I found it but at the moment there's not much I can contribute.

Disclaimer

Due a lack of everyday use I still have to improve my English writing capabilities (as well as speaking). As a special offer you can keep all mistakes you may encounter - absolutely free of charge - as long as you drop me a hint. ;)