We had a lot of books, on a wide variety of topics, and I loved to read. Dad was a phone installer, Mom a secretary until my brother was born (I'm the youngest

We had a lot of books, on a wide variety of topics, and I loved to read. Dad was a phone installer, Mom a secretary until my brother was born (I'm the youngest of three). But both loved to read, and Dad had eclectic interests. Neither was particularly scientific or critical in their approach, but curiosity was prevalent. One of my favourite books when I was very young was called "Prove It" (a quick Google search turns up all the wrong books, including theology - wha?). It was basically science experiments that anyone with a little curiosity and the normal sorts of things one found around a house in the '60s and '70s could do. Nothing harmful, nothing risky, just a whole lot of cool. There were pictorial encyclopaedia, "real" encyclopaedia, Popular Mechanics magazines, a whole lot.... Exposure and curiosity. Those help a lot.