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Random Positivity Thread: Happy Book Memories (awful.systems)
submitted 3 days ago by blakestacey@awful.systems to c/morewrite@awful.systems
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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.

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[-] self@awful.systems 5 points 2 days 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.

[-] fasterandworse@awful.systems 3 points 17 hours ago

oh yeah! That spiral-bound monster was great. I was too young and dumb at the time to actually learn basic but I used to copy the programs from that book into the command line and run them to see what they did. Great memories, thanks!

this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2025
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