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zdashamberI'd make up some thrilling or heart-rending tale of why I haven't been posting or responding to e-mail or chatting lately, but the truth is that I've merely fallen down a long series of book-shaped holes.
Take this Saturday. Well, to fully explain it I'd have to go back years, but to introduce the book, I'll merely mention that a couple months ago I learned that the Oakland Museum had a White Elephant sale, and I showed up in the last hour on the last day of it. Directed to the book corner of the warehouse by a fortuitous encounter with a coworker, I discovered that for $3 I could buy a paper grocery bag and fill it with all the books it would carry. I carried my bag to the science fiction shelf, and down at the bottom of the shelf, in flat cardboard boxes, sitting there all neglected, were maybe a hundred Fantasy and Science Fiction magazines from the 60s and 70s.
Now, I'd been looking for one specific F&SF magazine--you might know that the last three books of the first series of Zelazny's Amber were first published in F&SF in the early 70s, in three parts each, with illustrations. (Edit: Actually, if you're really acute, like![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
colomon, you might know that it was actually Galaxy they were published in. Maaan...) I've got all of these save for one. I don't remember which one, though. And the sale was going to be ending soon, and I thought, well, heck, I can always donate the ones I don't want to the U.C. Riverside science fiction research library...
Three bags crammed with F&SF (and a few Asimov's). And there was still a bit of space in the third, so I determined to pick up a few "reading" books while I was there. It was pretty picked over by then, but I did find a nice hardcover book by Joan Vinge, Tangled Up In Blue. I had some vague idea that her Snow Queen stuff was supposed to be good, and this one was unconnected to the others in the series, and the science fiction police story idea appealed to me. Plus, I thought, I remember liking "Dreamsnake" quite a bit.
So, I was telling this story toobadiah last night over dinner, and about here he comes in with, "Dreamsnake was by Vonda McIntyre."
Oh. Well... Um... I picked up Tangled Up in Blue because I liked Dreamsnake.
Anyway, so I finally got around to reading it Saturday, while waiting for the guy to bring the silver Volvo back from the mechanic who was checking it out. And there I was in the middle of the book, reading along through great heaping waves of angst and grief with tears streaming down my face, and the doorbell rings to signal the guy's finally brought the car back.
Aw, crap. I think. Blot-blot-blot the face, and I stop by the mirror en route to the door, yes, I'm all red and puffy... Nothing to be done about it. I open the door, we haggle price for a moment, and then I sell him the car for $3,600.
He pays in cash.
Cash! 36 $100 dollar bills! He's just pulling them out of his rear pocket! For about 24 hours, I was in posession of more actual cash money than I've ever held in my hands before in my entire life!
It was odd.
And thus the saga of car distress, which has been a part of my life since mid-December 2002, endeth.
Take this Saturday. Well, to fully explain it I'd have to go back years, but to introduce the book, I'll merely mention that a couple months ago I learned that the Oakland Museum had a White Elephant sale, and I showed up in the last hour on the last day of it. Directed to the book corner of the warehouse by a fortuitous encounter with a coworker, I discovered that for $3 I could buy a paper grocery bag and fill it with all the books it would carry. I carried my bag to the science fiction shelf, and down at the bottom of the shelf, in flat cardboard boxes, sitting there all neglected, were maybe a hundred Fantasy and Science Fiction magazines from the 60s and 70s.
Now, I'd been looking for one specific F&SF magazine--you might know that the last three books of the first series of Zelazny's Amber were first published in F&SF in the early 70s, in three parts each, with illustrations. (Edit: Actually, if you're really acute, like
colomon, you might know that it was actually Galaxy they were published in. Maaan...) I've got all of these save for one. I don't remember which one, though. And the sale was going to be ending soon, and I thought, well, heck, I can always donate the ones I don't want to the U.C. Riverside science fiction research library...Three bags crammed with F&SF (and a few Asimov's). And there was still a bit of space in the third, so I determined to pick up a few "reading" books while I was there. It was pretty picked over by then, but I did find a nice hardcover book by Joan Vinge, Tangled Up In Blue. I had some vague idea that her Snow Queen stuff was supposed to be good, and this one was unconnected to the others in the series, and the science fiction police story idea appealed to me. Plus, I thought, I remember liking "Dreamsnake" quite a bit.
So, I was telling this story to
obadiah last night over dinner, and about here he comes in with, "Dreamsnake was by Vonda McIntyre."Oh. Well... Um... I picked up Tangled Up in Blue because I liked Dreamsnake.
Anyway, so I finally got around to reading it Saturday, while waiting for the guy to bring the silver Volvo back from the mechanic who was checking it out. And there I was in the middle of the book, reading along through great heaping waves of angst and grief with tears streaming down my face, and the doorbell rings to signal the guy's finally brought the car back.
Aw, crap. I think. Blot-blot-blot the face, and I stop by the mirror en route to the door, yes, I'm all red and puffy... Nothing to be done about it. I open the door, we haggle price for a moment, and then I sell him the car for $3,600.
He pays in cash.
Cash! 36 $100 dollar bills! He's just pulling them out of his rear pocket! For about 24 hours, I was in posession of more actual cash money than I've ever held in my hands before in my entire life!
It was odd.
And thus the saga of car distress, which has been a part of my life since mid-December 2002, endeth.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-21 05:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-21 11:08 am (UTC)I've been poking through the magazines, and in each there's an Isaac Asimov science bit... Fascinating stuff. An entire article on mercury, for instance. Apparently in one of the Moorish castles in Spain they had a whole mercury fountain. How cool would that be?
(Ah, well. In that much pulp magazine, there must be at least some Zelazny... ;) )
no subject
Date: 2004-04-21 11:32 am (UTC)The Isaac Asimov science bits in F&SF are the essays that were collected together to make all those Asimov science essay books -- like (runs downstairs) _The Tragedy of the Moon_ (reprints from Mar 72 through July 73) and _Quasar, Quasar, Burning Bright_ (reprints from May 76 through Sept 77). These were the only two I could quickly find in my collection, but I'm pretty sure all the F&SF essays were collected this way -- I read a ton of them in junior high school. (Hmmm... the intro to _Quasar_ says that it's the 13th such collection.)
I've no idea if these are still in print -- I checked the first 100 Amazon.com hits on Isaac Asimov without seeing one, but I don't know if that means anything.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-21 03:08 pm (UTC)