Ah, hard sci-fi. As a long time purveyor, I've read a lot of it. This addiction started way back in the day when I stumbled upon a book called 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' by Robert Heinlein.
From that point on, you could say it was an addiction.
I poured every Heinline book I could find. Sure, it wasn't Hemingway, but by good it was all a good fun filled story, some of it even scary, some of it making the blood begin to boil towards revolution.