Ralph L. McNutt Jr. of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Howard County is the project scientist for NASA's Messenger space mission to the planet Mercury.
"Golden Picture Book of Our Sun and the Worlds Around It" / by Jene Lyon, with art by George Solonewitsch / Simon & Schuster / $3
This book from a friend of my parents on or about my fifth Christmas or birthday (around 1957-58) introduced me to the solar system and a lifetime of fascination with physics, astronomy, the planets and space travel possibilities.
"Tom Swift in the Race to the Moon" / by Victor Appleton II / Grosset & Dunlap / 180 pages / $3
This book was a present from my cousin when I had been sick. This was the first "chapter book" I read and was how I learned about science fiction.
" The World Book Encyclopedia" / World Book / 22 volumes / $398
This set opened the entire world to me growing up as an only child of older parents in Fort Worth, Texas.
"Crime and Punishment" / by Fyodor Dostoyevsky / Random House / 592 pages / $9.95
This was one of 10 books I read in order to try to test out of freshman English at Texas A&M; University. It did just that, but the real result was opening my eyes to the richness, importance and beauty of world literature and philosophy and the realization of the difference between "education" and "being educated."