I’m one of the original Star Wars fans (as in, I saw the first movie as soon as it showed up in Nashville, TN in early June 1977). It was the summer break after my freshman year of college, and I was working the factory line at Aladdin Industries, making Thermos bottles. My first “real” job, according to my father (after working at our family-owned gas station since age 6). Working the second shift, I was able to catch a late showing the day it came out.
The first time I saw it, I knew it was a game changer in so many ways. The next day, I came back and “watched” it with my eyes closed, just to listen to the music. A long-time lover of classical music, I was building a classical record library courtesy of a Columbia Music classical record subscription (remember those?).
Then I watched it five more times in the next week. And saw it again in theaters over the years. And bought it on VHS – then DVD, finally on Blu Ray. And I’ve watched it a bunch (cue eye roll by the wife) on Disney+ since November 2019.
The love of Star Wars runs deep in my family, from me to my children to my grandchildren. I have a 10-year old granddaughter I would put up against anyone in Star Wars trivia.
Oddly enough, though, I’ve only read two books with Star Wars stories. Those happened to be the first two, “Star Wars” and “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye,” both written by Alan Dean Foster (even though the first had George Lucas’ name on the cover), which I bought when they came out. And in the 44 years since…
Nada.
Of the hundreds of books available in the Star Wars universe, I’ve really only read those two. Which, given my family fandom, love of movies in general, and Star Wars fascination, is unusual.
To say nothing of my love of reading in general.
That changed this week, with the book “Light of the Jedi.” I preordered it for my Star Wars-loving, book-collecting son when it came out January 5. At the time, I told him I was also putting it on reserve at my library, and would read it when it came in so we could talk about it.
Which it did yesterday.
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