I guess somewhere up to 14 years ago, my mother decided to purchase me some books (as that is the when the last book was released). They were the Mission Earth series of books, written by L. Ron Hubbard. I had no idea who he was back then, and I'm assuming neither did my mother. They were all in nice hard cover, sounded like decent science fiction and they were only $4 each on special. Only thing is, I am missing book number 4 of this dekalogy (collection of 10). So I've never attempted to read the series. It's been sitting on a bookshelf basically forever.

For those that don't know, L. Ron Hubbard is the founder of Scientology.

When Megan moved in with me some 6 months ago, she looked at those books sitting in the bookshelf, turned to me and gave me a funny look. "What are those doing there?" I wondered what she was talking about. I explained that I just hadn't read them. I had heard by this time that L. Ron Hubbard was the founder of Scientology, but it meant little to me. I didn't know that much about Scientology (I actually decided to read the wikipedia article before reading this), and to me these were just science fiction books. "He's bloody weird. He actually believes all that stuff he's written. To him, all that is real." The conversation didn't last long, but she made it clear she is actually a little uncomfortable having them in the house, which I do find interesting given that she is a very open minded person.

So, last week, I decided to make the effort to actually read these books and find out whether I want to keep them, or track down the fourth book, or chuck them out to make Megan happy. So far, I'm about 50 pages into the first book, and I have to say I am intrigued by the writing styIe It seems to have a sort of vibrancy, and it is written in first person as someones account of the events who often gets excited at the retelling. When it comes to fantasy/sci-fi I'm used to it written from a casual third persons perspective. I wouldn't say I'm enthralled yet, but I do want to keep reading. So far, this is just a sci-fi novel and I don't feel the need to pay, I mean donate, to the Church of Scientology.

But it begs the question for me, do the actions or beliefs of the author have anything to do with a readers enjoyment of the book? If I asked you to read an L. Ron Hubbard book, what would your response be? What if you found out that George Lucas believed that the Star Wars canon actually exists out there somewhere; would you suddenly not enjoy Star Wars? What if Tolkien believed that Middle Earth really existed on an alternate plane to our own; would the books or movies become less valid entertainment from someone who doesn't believe? What if people believed that the stories in the bible actually existed? (Sorry, had to go there).

Based on what I've just read about Scientology, this 'religion' does seem a little bit dodgy. But even if this fiction is fact to the author, it is just interesting fiction to me, and that is all I'm asking for.

Megan is away this week, coming back on Friday. So I'm intending to put up 'I Love L. Ron Hubbard' posters, a note saying I'm leaving her if she won't come and 'audit' with me, and whatever I, or you, can think of. I'm open to ideas for this prank :) When I get home and she looks at me funny, I'll just say "Tom Cruise would understand..."