I often look at the modern world and feel like a lost outsider. Corporations taking the personal touch out of everything, book and record shops shutting down in favor of instant downloads. It all seems so cold and sterile to me. It lacks the personal touch.
I like new fiction and I hope to never stop trying out new writers and reading the books and stories that are current. But I'm looking back to the past more and more. It's called getting old. But it's not all about being old and yearning for the better days of the past.
When I was a boy there was a little bookstore near where I lived. It was called Book 'n' Card and it was located in a tiny mall. It was small by the later standard of the superbookstore, which is now an endangered species itself.
I loved Sherwood Mall. In addition to the bookstore, there was a hobby shop, a music store, a hardware store, and a five and dime. I did an internet image search and I can't find any pictures of it. It's sad.
A friend and I were talking yesterday and he said that he wished he had taken more pictures of stuff from the late 70's and early 80's. Things we loved are now gone. We both really knew better, but we kind of thought that everything would always be there. The bookstore in the little mall, the gaming arcade, the drive-ins and independent walk-in theaters, the diners and cool locally-owned restaurants. All, or at least most, of it has been assimilated by corporations. Our money no longer stays in our communities.
But I digress. I was talking about the Book 'n' Card and fiction from the past.
I went to the Book 'n' Card at least once a week. I'd be there on new comic day, sometimes seeing them bundled up and wishing that the clerk would go ahead and open it up and get the new comics on the creaky spinner rack. I also read a lot of books.
Much of what was on the shelves in the Science Fiction section was older fiction. Pulp stuff reprinted in paperback form. Often serials were packaged as novels. It was commonplace. I loved the older materials more on the whole than the new fiction being published.
Then there were the great Doc Savage books that were reprinted by Bantam Books. Doc's adventures were originally published in the 1930's and 1940's.
The point I'm trying to make is, it's not just because of my impending old age that I enjoy reading fiction that was published near or before the mid-20th Century. I've always loved the pulp era.
For the better part of the last twenty five years, I've read current or at least relatively recent fiction. And for the most part it has been in the horror genre. I miss the pulps. The imaginative fiction that I was weaned on.
Many collectors love getting old books and savoring them. I like old books too, but to be honest I really like modern publishing. I like Haffner Press, and NESFA Press. I like it that some modern specialty publishers are reprinting classic genre fiction in durable, long-lasting editions.
Some companies are putting stuff out in expensive trade paperbacks. They often cost twenty dollars, or even more. I'm not as fond of that, but I can't blame them. Putting out books such as, say, Zeppelin Tales by Lester Dent, is a labor of love and it's wonderful that someone is doing it.
Still, I like the hardbacks. I recently acquired a copy of the beautiful Henry Kuttner collection of horror stories, Terror in the House. This book, to me, is what collecting is all about. It's a stunning edition, with a gorgeous cover painting. I'm not knowledgeable about the specifics of bookmaking materials, but this is a sturdy book that looks like it will last a lifetime of reading.
Another great Haffner title of interest to horror readers is The Vampire Master and other Tales of Horror. It's another beautiful edition by a writer who was mostly known for his SF work.
I bought a couple of NESFA collections recently as well. One is Anthony Boucher's The Complete Boucher. Boucher is best known for his work as a writer, editor, and reviewer in the Mystery field. He even has a convention named in his honor. Boucher was, however, influential in the Science Fiction genre. He was a founding editor of the esteemed magazine, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and he wrote numerous stories that were extremely well-received. His theological short story, The Quest For Saint Aquin, is considered to be among the finest stories ever published in the SF field.
I also got two other massive collections that were published by NESFA fairly recently: First Contacts: The Essential Murray Leinster, and The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith. Both of these men were important writers in The Golden Age of Science Fiction, and sadly, both of them are rapidly being forgotten. Or they have been forgotten by most people.
I've just touched the surface of the many wonderful publications by Haffner and NESFA. The fiction put out by these guys has elements that are missing from a lot of later Horror and Science Fiction that has been published. I'm talking about charm and class and a childlike sense of awe of the imagination.
I want to talk about another little publisher that you never seem to hear much about. They're called called Aegypan and I can't even find a website for them. But Aegypan has been putting out lovely little chapbooks. Hardcovers, paperbacks, and even e-books for those of you that love putting booksellers out of business. Aegypan has published nifty short stories by writers like Fredric Brown, Mack Reynolds, Robert Sheckley, Philip K. Dick, Fritz Leiber, Raymond Z. Gallun, Harry Harrison, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Frederik Pohl, Clifford D. Simak and many others. They've even done books by Kurt Vonnegut, L. Frank Baum, H. Rider Haggard, Charles Dickens, Robert E. Howard, and Stephen Crane! The prices tend to be very reasonable, too. So the next time you're trying to get up enough purchases to earn free shipping at Amazon or B&N, do a search for Aegypan books. You'll find some really cool things.
Entering my fifth decade on this planet, I find comfort in reading older fiction again. New fiction can and often is wonderful, but there is a sense of history in the old pulps. I'm having a ball rediscovering a lot of it.
I like new fiction and I hope to never stop trying out new writers and reading the books and stories that are current. But I'm looking back to the past more and more. It's called getting old. But it's not all about being old and yearning for the better days of the past.
When I was a boy there was a little bookstore near where I lived. It was called Book 'n' Card and it was located in a tiny mall. It was small by the later standard of the superbookstore, which is now an endangered species itself.
I loved Sherwood Mall. In addition to the bookstore, there was a hobby shop, a music store, a hardware store, and a five and dime. I did an internet image search and I can't find any pictures of it. It's sad.
A friend and I were talking yesterday and he said that he wished he had taken more pictures of stuff from the late 70's and early 80's. Things we loved are now gone. We both really knew better, but we kind of thought that everything would always be there. The bookstore in the little mall, the gaming arcade, the drive-ins and independent walk-in theaters, the diners and cool locally-owned restaurants. All, or at least most, of it has been assimilated by corporations. Our money no longer stays in our communities.
But I digress. I was talking about the Book 'n' Card and fiction from the past.
I went to the Book 'n' Card at least once a week. I'd be there on new comic day, sometimes seeing them bundled up and wishing that the clerk would go ahead and open it up and get the new comics on the creaky spinner rack. I also read a lot of books.
Much of what was on the shelves in the Science Fiction section was older fiction. Pulp stuff reprinted in paperback form. Often serials were packaged as novels. It was commonplace. I loved the older materials more on the whole than the new fiction being published.Then there were the great Doc Savage books that were reprinted by Bantam Books. Doc's adventures were originally published in the 1930's and 1940's.
The point I'm trying to make is, it's not just because of my impending old age that I enjoy reading fiction that was published near or before the mid-20th Century. I've always loved the pulp era.
For the better part of the last twenty five years, I've read current or at least relatively recent fiction. And for the most part it has been in the horror genre. I miss the pulps. The imaginative fiction that I was weaned on.
Many collectors love getting old books and savoring them. I like old books too, but to be honest I really like modern publishing. I like Haffner Press, and NESFA Press. I like it that some modern specialty publishers are reprinting classic genre fiction in durable, long-lasting editions.
Some companies are putting stuff out in expensive trade paperbacks. They often cost twenty dollars, or even more. I'm not as fond of that, but I can't blame them. Putting out books such as, say, Zeppelin Tales by Lester Dent, is a labor of love and it's wonderful that someone is doing it.
Still, I like the hardbacks. I recently acquired a copy of the beautiful Henry Kuttner collection of horror stories, Terror in the House. This book, to me, is what collecting is all about. It's a stunning edition, with a gorgeous cover painting. I'm not knowledgeable about the specifics of bookmaking materials, but this is a sturdy book that looks like it will last a lifetime of reading.
Another great Haffner title of interest to horror readers is The Vampire Master and other Tales of Horror. It's another beautiful edition by a writer who was mostly known for his SF work.
I bought a couple of NESFA collections recently as well. One is Anthony Boucher's The Complete Boucher. Boucher is best known for his work as a writer, editor, and reviewer in the Mystery field. He even has a convention named in his honor. Boucher was, however, influential in the Science Fiction genre. He was a founding editor of the esteemed magazine, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and he wrote numerous stories that were extremely well-received. His theological short story, The Quest For Saint Aquin, is considered to be among the finest stories ever published in the SF field.
I also got two other massive collections that were published by NESFA fairly recently: First Contacts: The Essential Murray Leinster, and The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith. Both of these men were important writers in The Golden Age of Science Fiction, and sadly, both of them are rapidly being forgotten. Or they have been forgotten by most people.
I've just touched the surface of the many wonderful publications by Haffner and NESFA. The fiction put out by these guys has elements that are missing from a lot of later Horror and Science Fiction that has been published. I'm talking about charm and class and a childlike sense of awe of the imagination.
I want to talk about another little publisher that you never seem to hear much about. They're called called Aegypan and I can't even find a website for them. But Aegypan has been putting out lovely little chapbooks. Hardcovers, paperbacks, and even e-books for those of you that love putting booksellers out of business. Aegypan has published nifty short stories by writers like Fredric Brown, Mack Reynolds, Robert Sheckley, Philip K. Dick, Fritz Leiber, Raymond Z. Gallun, Harry Harrison, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Frederik Pohl, Clifford D. Simak and many others. They've even done books by Kurt Vonnegut, L. Frank Baum, H. Rider Haggard, Charles Dickens, Robert E. Howard, and Stephen Crane! The prices tend to be very reasonable, too. So the next time you're trying to get up enough purchases to earn free shipping at Amazon or B&N, do a search for Aegypan books. You'll find some really cool things.
Entering my fifth decade on this planet, I find comfort in reading older fiction again. New fiction can and often is wonderful, but there is a sense of history in the old pulps. I'm having a ball rediscovering a lot of it.
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