For me it was The World We Live In that sold me on dinosaurs. It was a big book from Time/Life that originally came out early in the Fifties. There was a lot of territory to cover in what began as a magazine series, which then a book, heavy on illustrations (like Life). I immediately drawn to the fold-out pages full of dramatic dinosaurs, with Tyrannosaurus Rex King of them all, lording over the smaller animals.
Since I come from a family of pack rats, I still have that book, having inherited my parents copy. But I also have a set of three books, boxed in individual presentation copies, something I bought at a yard sale. I can’t even remember the names of the other two books and I only glanced through them before they were absorbed into the disorder of my tsundoku, as the Japanese call piles of unread books.
The other thing that comes to mind is the California public school system, where my education began. All of the second grade students used to study dinosaurs, maybe they still do. It comes at an important point in childhood development, where kids are absorbing all sorts of information and just getting deeper into books. At any rate those dinosaurs left a lasting impression on me.
For me it was The World We Live In that sold me on dinosaurs. It was a big book from Time/Life that originally came out early in the Fifties. There was a lot of territory to cover in what began as a magazine series, which then a book, heavy on illustrations (like Life). I immediately drawn to the fold-out pages full of dramatic dinosaurs, with Tyrannosaurus Rex King of them all, lording over the smaller animals.
Since I come from a family of pack rats, I still have that book, having inherited my parents copy. But I also have a set of three books, boxed in individual presentation copies, something I bought at a yard sale. I can’t even remember the names of the other two books and I only glanced through them before they were absorbed into the disorder of my tsundoku, as the Japanese call piles of unread books.
The other thing that comes to mind is the California public school system, where my education began. All of the second grade students used to study dinosaurs, maybe they still do. It comes at an important point in childhood development, where kids are absorbing all sorts of information and just getting deeper into books. At any rate those dinosaurs left a lasting impression on me.