We had a good chat last night about Science Fiction and Fantasy literature starting with a discussion about Science Fiction as a late nineteenth and twentieth century phenomenon where Fantasy literature encompasses all of literature going back to the earliest written words. Now they are often indistinguishable. Then we discussed the dystopian trend in Science Fiction. The Golden Age (thirties and forties) saw mostly optimistic science fiction stories but in the second half of the twentieth century starting with the New Wave through today there has been a darker trend with many dystopian and post apocalyptic stories. Then closing the chat we each discussed our first experiences in Science Fiction. Viv and I both started reading SF in the fifties. I mentioned A.E. Van Vogt and Robert Heinlein and Viv mentioned Clifford D. Simak, Andre Norton, and Ursula K. Leguinn. Megan started Science Fiction with the TV series Farscape. What a difference 40 years makes. Please post your introduction to Science Fiction and Fantasy in the comments.
The Star Trek (original) TV series was my introduction to SF. Then I kind of spread forward and backward from that: the New Wave stuff in one direction (as it was published) and the Golden Age stuff in the other, chiefly Asimov, Heinlein, etc. for that bunch.
Yeah, I was books first and when there was science fiction television I thought, "Oh, wow!" but it rarely lived up to expectations. Except for "The Trouble With Tribbles". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_with_Tribbles
I was books first in general, but my parents weren't much for SF so I didn't have SF books until after I got exposed to the very notion of it via Star Trek.
I worked at the library shelving books and after I read through all the SF in the children's area I started checking out the Science Fiction they had upstairs. Now I read on my Kindle using Overdrive so still a library patron.
Books have always enthralled me. When I was approaching my teen years A well written story would keep me reading till I fell asleep with the book in my hand. Mother complained about it but she never denied me access to books. We lost my father when I was in 7th grade. It was a traumatic time for us but we survived. When I reached Jr.High School I volunteered to help with the school library. It was a great way to learn just how libraries operate and why books have to be shelved in the right place for things to run smoothly.
I still read at night until I fall asleep. Sometimes I have to reread a page or two in the morning. And what am I reading now? The new N.K. Jemisin Hugo nominee, "The City We Became".