In the early 80s, when I was 5 or 6, I got Basic for Beginners and Programming Tricks and Skills (along with a couple of other Usborne books which were about video games) from my local K-Mart in rural Australia.<p>These books kicked off my love affair with programming, and like many of you I was writing out code without even owning a computer! I remember trying to make a computer out of cardboard and graph paper, and was disappointed that it didn&#x27;t work. The fact that I could comprehend a for loop before the laws of electricity is kind of trippy.<p>Anyway, these books were my introduction to a lifelong love affair with programming, and I owe my entire career to them.<p>At the risk of sounding like a greybeard, things were very different then. If you grew up in the Internet age, it may be difficult to grok that there was a time when information was scarce, and that just carrying around books like these gave you immense understanding and potential.