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Jules Verne's "The Mysterious Island" was how I got interested in tech around the age of 6. I devoured all of his books that I could find after that and it was

Jules Verne's "The Mysterious Island" was how I got interested in tech around the age of 6. I devoured all of his books that I could find after that and it was my introduction to geology ("Journey to the Center of the Earth"), geography ("In search of the castaways", "Around the world in eighty days"), oceanology ("Twenty thousand leagues under the sea"), Astronautics ("From the Earth to the Moon", "Around the moon"), dystopian/utopian world building ("The Begum's fortune") and so on and so forth. EDIT: fixed the name of the book, thank you bradyd.

bradyd 7y ago
I believe you actually mean "The Mysterious Island". I read this book last year and was amazed by the level of technical detail.
nabla9 7y ago
As a kid when I learned to read I soon devoured trough books in children section basically reading all books from one author, then moving to the next. First Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan and Mars series. Then all Jules Verne books available. Verne is technically very detailed. They were great reading experiences. I can still remember where the books were placed in the library.
- ZguideZ 7y ago
  I did the same. I got sidetracked with Tolkien and the Jim Kjelgaard Big Red books as well.
- ZguideZ 7y ago
  It's funny, kids don't get to experience the magic of libraries like we did. I'm a 71 model and I think those that came after the 70s pretty much didn't get to experience it.
  - irrational 7y ago
    Depends on the parents. My kids biggest complaint about the library is that they are only allowed to checkout 100 books at a time.
    - jfim 7y ago
      Out of curiosity, what's the scenario in which one would hit that limit? When I was a kid, the limit was something like five books, and we'd just go to the library often.
      - irrational 7y ago
        When we go to the library (about once a week), the kids haul out at least that many books. They are all voracious readers and can go through 100 books in the blink of an eye.
  - jacobolus 7y ago
    There are still great public libraries in many parts of the world (and certainly all over the USA). Why wouldn’t kids get to experience them?
    - ZguideZ 7y ago
      The magic of libraries was discovering a new section of the dewey decimal system, figuring out that other books you liked might be next to the book you looked up in the card catalog, and escaping to worlds you could never see if not for your imagination and the printed word. Now you just google it, find pictures, read everything about it on the wikis, look at a live cam or webcam of the place, use google earth to wander around, read about all the negative things about the hero you just discovered etc. It's not that the libraries aren't there - it's that the lack of other things made them magical.
    - ZguideZ 7y ago
      Plus..and this is true in Hawaii but not positive about other libraries - when I was a kid there weren't homeless people spending all day sleeping in the library and occupying all the available seats. The main people in the libraries around us are homeless using the internet, homeless using the air conditioning, and homeless using the bathrooms. I'm not going to send my kid to hang out in the library for hours without supervision.
  - samplatt 7y ago
    '84 model, and dude, I basically lived at the library - both school and public. It was a ~16km bike ride from my parents farm to the library. Only one of my ~6 nephews/nieces show interest in libraries, but honestly? That's a pretty good hit-rate. They're not for everyone, and never were.
    - ZguideZ 7y ago
      Glad to hear we weren't the last of the library kids
      - serverQuestion 7y ago
        I'm from '91 and I basically read a book a week during my teens.
nsajko 7y ago
Ditto, but I think it would be good to accompany the book with some testimonies by/about people who got hurt/killed by chemicals. I remember getting quite giddy about the possibility to get some nitroglycerin, nitric acid, etc. from reading The Mysterious Island; and I was lucky to lack the resourcefulness needed to actually obtain the nasty stuff. If the young reader could get a good chemistry teacher as a tutor, though; the possibilities turn from grim to great.
irrational 7y ago
For me it was the old Tom Swift books that I found at my grandparent's house. Tom Swift and His Flying Lab, Tom Swift and His Atomic Earth Blaster, Tom Swift and His Diving Seacopter, Tom Swift in the Caves of Nuclear Fire, Tom Swift in the Race to the Moon, etc. https://www.orderofbooks.com/characters/tom-swift/ https://www.orderofbooks.com/characters/tom-swift/ https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=tom+swift https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=tom+swift
- jvanvleet 7y ago
  Mine too. Tom Swift and the Bookmobile that brought them changed my life. It also had a few of the "new" Tom Swift adventures and I later learned there was an "old" series that start with Tom Swift and his Wireless Message and Tom Swift and his Electronic Rifle.
- smacktoward 7y ago
  Unrelated fact: Tom Swift is why tasers are called tasers. Their inventor, Jack Cover (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Cover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Cover), named them by acronymizing "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle" (TASER).
  - fouc 7y ago
    That's a ridiculously cool fact.
- T-hawk 7y ago
  Wow, same here. My family happened to find a big set of that same Tom Swift series at a yard sale when I was about 12. They were constantly my most-read books through middle and high school, and may well have had something to do with going into tech as a career.
- wikibob 7y ago
  Me too! I loved those books when I was young. I'd forgotten about them.
- btown 7y ago
mynegation 7y ago
EDIT2: Basically any government that wants to improve investment into STEM should start by including those and similar books into the school reading program.
- wiseleo 7y ago
  You're right. Compare that to the random classics in which you have no interest on which you have to write a report.
  - pilsetnieks 7y ago
    Might not those become a subject to tedious report writing and become disliked by young children as well? I bet there are people who like those current classics, too – people who were not exposed to them in school, or who overcame their association with the drudgery of schoolwork.
pi-rat 7y ago
Probably my favorite book as a child, I probably read that thing 100 times.
- mindcrime 7y ago
  Same here. I've read that book probably at least 20 times in my life, and I expect I'll read it at least a couple more if I live long enough.
ZguideZ 7y ago
Don't forget an introduction to Chemistry in Mysterious Island as well. Fun fact, The Mysterious Island was the basis of the series LOST.
- kpozin 7y ago
  Interesting, I haven't been able to find any acknowledged connections between the two. Do you have any references you could share? The two works were linked in my mind back when I was watching Lost, and my impressions of them were very similar -- in both The Mysterious Island and Lost, there were fascinating mysteries built up in the beginning, but the eventually revealed explanations could not live up to those expectations.
  - ZguideZ 7y ago
    I wrote my undergrad thesis back in 08 about how Lost was breaking barriers between real world and fiction - part of that was interviewing cast, crew, and writers. On my interview with Cuse and Abrams it came up as the starting point - castaways, mysterious cave, submarine, etc etc. I'll see if I can dig it up. There was no way they could live up to the expectations - part of the problem was that they kept trying to tease the fans with the future and the fans kept guessing right so they kept trying to change things to stay ahead and as a result - painted themselves in a corner. They did some amazingly interesting things though - creating events, products, and fake companies in the real world to enhance the story telling in the fictional one. Ground breaking. A big part of my thesis was how a shared interest in the show was creating real world friendships from online fanboards - something that sounds 'so what?' now, but that was mind blowing back then. People would meet on the boards and then travel to Hawaii, meet up, go to the set locations, even stay together - based on a passion for the 'mysteries' the show created.
tigershark 7y ago
I decided to become an engineer after reading the mysterious island. Although I was somewhat older, probably 10-12. Journey to the centre of the earth was actually the first book that I read when I was probably 7, and I really enjoyed it.
AceJohnny2 7y ago
Same impact of "Mysterious Island" on me. It's the original "competence/achievement" book. Though I've never fully recovered from the reality check than a real engineer isn't as broadly competent and knowledgeable as Cyrus Smith. (even American ones ;) )

bradyd 7y ago

I believe you actually mean "The Mysterious Island". I read this book last year and was amazed by the level of technical detail.

nabla9 7y ago

As a kid when I learned to read I soon devoured trough books in children section basically reading all books from one author, then moving to the next. First Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan and Mars series. Then all Jules Verne books available. Verne is technically very detailed. They were great reading experiences. I can still remember where the books were placed in the library.

ZguideZ 7y ago
I did the same. I got sidetracked with Tolkien and the Jim Kjelgaard Big Red books as well.
ZguideZ 7y ago
It's funny, kids don't get to experience the magic of libraries like we did. I'm a 71 model and I think those that came after the 70s pretty much didn't get to experience it.
- irrational 7y ago
  Depends on the parents. My kids biggest complaint about the library is that they are only allowed to checkout 100 books at a time.
  - jfim 7y ago
    Out of curiosity, what's the scenario in which one would hit that limit? When I was a kid, the limit was something like five books, and we'd just go to the library often.
    - irrational 7y ago
      When we go to the library (about once a week), the kids haul out at least that many books. They are all voracious readers and can go through 100 books in the blink of an eye.
- jacobolus 7y ago
  There are still great public libraries in many parts of the world (and certainly all over the USA). Why wouldn’t kids get to experience them?
  - ZguideZ 7y ago
    The magic of libraries was discovering a new section of the dewey decimal system, figuring out that other books you liked might be next to the book you looked up in the card catalog, and escaping to worlds you could never see if not for your imagination and the printed word. Now you just google it, find pictures, read everything about it on the wikis, look at a live cam or webcam of the place, use google earth to wander around, read about all the negative things about the hero you just discovered etc. It's not that the libraries aren't there - it's that the lack of other things made them magical.
  - ZguideZ 7y ago
    Plus..and this is true in Hawaii but not positive about other libraries - when I was a kid there weren't homeless people spending all day sleeping in the library and occupying all the available seats. The main people in the libraries around us are homeless using the internet, homeless using the air conditioning, and homeless using the bathrooms. I'm not going to send my kid to hang out in the library for hours without supervision.
- samplatt 7y ago
  '84 model, and dude, I basically lived at the library - both school and public. It was a ~16km bike ride from my parents farm to the library. Only one of my ~6 nephews/nieces show interest in libraries, but honestly? That's a pretty good hit-rate. They're not for everyone, and never were.
  - ZguideZ 7y ago
    Glad to hear we weren't the last of the library kids
    - serverQuestion 7y ago
      I'm from '91 and I basically read a book a week during my teens.

nsajko 7y ago

Ditto, but I think it would be good to accompany the book with some testimonies by/about people who got hurt/killed by chemicals. I remember getting quite giddy about the possibility to get some nitroglycerin, nitric acid, etc. from reading The Mysterious Island; and I was lucky to lack the resourcefulness needed to actually obtain the nasty stuff. If the young reader could get a good chemistry teacher as a tutor, though; the possibilities turn from grim to great.

irrational 7y ago

For me it was the old Tom Swift books that I found at my grandparent's house. Tom Swift and His Flying Lab, Tom Swift and His Atomic Earth Blaster, Tom Swift and His Diving Seacopter, Tom Swift in the Caves of Nuclear Fire, Tom Swift in the Race to the Moon, etc. https://www.orderofbooks.com/characters/tom-swift/ https://www.orderofbooks.com/characters/tom-swift/ https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=tom+swift https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=tom+swift

jvanvleet 7y ago
Mine too. Tom Swift and the Bookmobile that brought them changed my life. It also had a few of the "new" Tom Swift adventures and I later learned there was an "old" series that start with Tom Swift and his Wireless Message and Tom Swift and his Electronic Rifle.
smacktoward 7y ago
Unrelated fact: Tom Swift is why tasers are called tasers. Their inventor, Jack Cover (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Cover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Cover), named them by acronymizing "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle" (TASER).
- fouc 7y ago
  That's a ridiculously cool fact.
T-hawk 7y ago
Wow, same here. My family happened to find a big set of that same Tom Swift series at a yard sale when I was about 12. They were constantly my most-read books through middle and high school, and may well have had something to do with going into tech as a career.
wikibob 7y ago
Me too! I loved those books when I was young. I'd forgotten about them.
btown 7y ago

mynegation 7y ago

EDIT2: Basically any government that wants to improve investment into STEM should start by including those and similar books into the school reading program.

wiseleo 7y ago
You're right. Compare that to the random classics in which you have no interest on which you have to write a report.
- pilsetnieks 7y ago
  Might not those become a subject to tedious report writing and become disliked by young children as well? I bet there are people who like those current classics, too – people who were not exposed to them in school, or who overcame their association with the drudgery of schoolwork.

pi-rat 7y ago

Probably my favorite book as a child, I probably read that thing 100 times.

mindcrime 7y ago
Same here. I've read that book probably at least 20 times in my life, and I expect I'll read it at least a couple more if I live long enough.

ZguideZ 7y ago

Don't forget an introduction to Chemistry in Mysterious Island as well. Fun fact, The Mysterious Island was the basis of the series LOST.

kpozin 7y ago
Interesting, I haven't been able to find any acknowledged connections between the two. Do you have any references you could share? The two works were linked in my mind back when I was watching Lost, and my impressions of them were very similar -- in both The Mysterious Island and Lost, there were fascinating mysteries built up in the beginning, but the eventually revealed explanations could not live up to those expectations.
- ZguideZ 7y ago
  I wrote my undergrad thesis back in 08 about how Lost was breaking barriers between real world and fiction - part of that was interviewing cast, crew, and writers. On my interview with Cuse and Abrams it came up as the starting point - castaways, mysterious cave, submarine, etc etc. I'll see if I can dig it up. There was no way they could live up to the expectations - part of the problem was that they kept trying to tease the fans with the future and the fans kept guessing right so they kept trying to change things to stay ahead and as a result - painted themselves in a corner. They did some amazingly interesting things though - creating events, products, and fake companies in the real world to enhance the story telling in the fictional one. Ground breaking. A big part of my thesis was how a shared interest in the show was creating real world friendships from online fanboards - something that sounds 'so what?' now, but that was mind blowing back then. People would meet on the boards and then travel to Hawaii, meet up, go to the set locations, even stay together - based on a passion for the 'mysteries' the show created.

tigershark 7y ago

I decided to become an engineer after reading the mysterious island. Although I was somewhat older, probably 10-12. Journey to the centre of the earth was actually the first book that I read when I was probably 7, and I really enjoyed it.

AceJohnny2 7y ago

Same impact of "Mysterious Island" on me. It's the original "competence/achievement" book. Though I've never fully recovered from the reality check than a real engineer isn't as broadly competent and knowledgeable as Cyrus Smith. (even American ones ;) )