I was all of ten or eleven years old when Dad made me do my first book report The Naked Communist by W. Cleon Skousen as a condition to going to the movie Doctor Zhivago which came out that year. I was indignant that my sister, less than two years older, was old enough to take to that film, but I was not. So Dad handed me that book and said if I read it and wrote him a report, he would let me go as well. I did and he was true to his word.
He suggested WITNESS as a follow-up and I begin to read it. Then the weather got warm enough for baseball and I never finished. I was blessed with awesome parents.
You really were, I admire that approach by your dad. I didn't read "Witness" until I was about 50 yrs old...
Funny. I saw Dr. Zhivago on a base theater when I was perhaps 10 or 11, and while it was interesting, it didn't have as much impact on me as the message that came across the crawl line at the top of the screen in the middle of the movie...that RFK had been shot.
I just re-watched the movie this past year for the first time, and enjoyed it. The scene where he comes back from the war and his house has been "appropriated" was powerful to me.
Wow...what an amazing father! You are very fortunate to have had him in your life.