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title: From Mars and Back to Close Reading with Computers
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image:
  feature: mars.png
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In the acknowledgements to _Close Reading with Computers_, I write:

> I came to the computational study of novels through a chance intersection of two of my main life interests: literature and computer programming. Before I was an academic, I was a computer programmer. At age seven I was incredibly lucky to have an information technology teacher – Andrew J. Read – who had written a book to teach children to program in the BASIC language. When I asked “what is computer programming?”, I was immediately taken off the standard course of learning Microsoft Word (the dreadful syllabus that so often works its way into school-level Information Technology courses) and transferred to study Mars and Back for the remainder of the year. I have never stopped my programming activities and I find the process deeply satisfying in a very different way to that of writing literary criticism. I would like to thank Andrew for recognising this interest and for nurturing it. A good teacher can make all the difference in life.

This morning, I have sent a copy of the book to Andrew, having managed to track him down, along with a side-by-side picture of our two books -- separated as they are by 26 years -- _Mars and Back_ published 1993 and _Close Reading with Computers_ in 2019. I hope it makes him smile when it arrives.