A recent visit to the site of Richard Robinson, Tip the Wink, led me to this meme about books and bookshelves and reading experiences created by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness. As I love all things book-related, I simply had to join in. (All images can be clicked on to open a larger version)
For my first Book Traveling post I am venturing to a physical location: my unfinished basement. The myriad shelves and artistic piles of books that reside on the main floor in our home are very neat and orderly. We all have our preferred shelf appearances: mine are filled with books stood upright, neatly packed, featuring new or so-pristine-you-cannot-tell-they’ve-been-read copies of books. Downstairs I keep all my treasured well-loved classic paperbacks as well as stacks of books for which I do not have shelf space.
These two featured shelves (and here I use the idea of a “shelf” liberally, as these are the old kitchen cabinet uppers we tore out of our house years ago, and I use as part of my basement library) showcase books from some of the classic science fiction authors I have grown to love over the years.
The books that are pulled forward are ones I have yet to read. They aren’t exactly uniform, so it is safe to assume that if the book is slightly pulled forward it belongs to that “have not read” category.
These basement shelves house books by Harry Harrison (the first science fiction author I read that wasn’t a Star Wars author), Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Brian Daley, Alan Dean Foster, and a few scattered authors.
Outside of the novelization for Star Wars (years before it would become Episode 4: A New Hope) the first science fiction book I read was Splinter of the Minds Eye, by Alan Dean Foster, an engaging Star Wars read despite the cringe-worthy Luke crushing on Leia moment early in the novel. There is no way Lucasfilm would have approved taboo love had George planned all along to reveal Luke and Leia as brother and sister.
After that I read the Han Solo books by Brian Daley, which I still love and reread to this day. You will also see a couple of copies of Glory Lane by Foster. This is a cheesy, very dated 80’s science fiction story that I read on a visit to Des Moines, from Nebraska, during Christmas break from my Freshman year of college. I went with one high school friend to visit another, driving through blizzard conditions to get there, and read about half of this book, pulled from an older brother’s shelves, reading before bed each night. The first printing had raised embossed lettering on the cover, and the cover illustration is by a favorite, James Gurney.
The humans and their orb-carrying alien friend are very true likenesses to the story, if I remember correctly, and there is so much going on here that it is a pleasure to let your eye roam the image to discover things you hadn’t seen previously. Whenever I find a nice copy of this original 1987 printing, with its raised embossed title, I pick it up. I think I have 4 copies in the basement, maybe 5. It is a very weird, sentimental quirk, but that was a special memory and I love honoring it in that way.
So therein is my first Book Traveling for Insane Times post. If anyone else is interested in participating, these are the details.
The ideas that make up the experience are simple:
- For each Friday post in the coming weeks while we endure the impossible, select a book shelf, or maybe two shelves, or a bookcase, or maybe a pile of books standing high upon the floor of your bedroom or living room. Or select any other random selection of books. Please don’t be hemmed in by spatial constraints or parameters. Do it your way by all means!
- From that shelf or bookshelves, choose a number of books that you would like to share with us whether you have read them or not. Some of them you may have read long ago and would like to revisit in memory or revisit the experience and time and place of reading the book. If you wish you could share a bit about what you liked or disliked or whatever else you would like to say.
Or select books you hope to read in the future and tell us about a few of them, as many as you like. And do this however you like. Jumble it up however you like. - If you’d like and if you’re able to, share a photo of either the books, the shelf, the shelves, or whatever you’d like, but this is just a suggestion.
- Feel free to ruminate and ramble in your discussions, because this is strictly for FUN, and I hope to have a lot of fun when I participate. Do delve into the shelves of your significant others, if that sounds like fun.
- If you can’t do it on a Friday, please feel free to participate on Saturday, Sunday, or Thursday.
I wish everyone a wonderful, happy weekend of reading. What are you planning to read this weekend?
I didn’t mention in my post that my plans are to finish a reread of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, which I started on one of the gloomy, cloud-covered days here this week, and probably finish the last two essays in Upstream, a collection by poet Mary Oliver, of her nature essays.
Wonderful, Carl, and so nice to see both the books and a post. I’m hopeful you continue. You put up enough to fill several posts, I think.
I see quite a few duplicates there, do you usually keep dups like that? I tend to keep the better copy and pass the second along, either to a friend or donate it. It’s a matter of space, usually.
You have a lot of Harrison, more than I, and more than I’ve read. Maybe I should move a book or two of his to my TBR shelves, after I whittle them down a bit. So many good books!
I have duplicates of some books that I bought and then found better copies, like two out of three of the To the Stars trilogy by Harrison. I need to donate the others. Also, if I like a book, like Podkayne of Mars, or several of the Heinlein juveniles, I will collect every different cover I can find when I come across them in the stores, so long as they aren’t in too terrible of shape.
The Stainless Steel Rat books (most of them) are my favorite Harrison books, not surprisingly, and I have most of them shelved elsewhere, but I did really enjoy the Deathworld trilogy.
I hear you about so many books. I count 24 on these two shelves alone (not including duplicates) that I have yet to read. And there are a bunch more where these came from.
Carl, I enjoyed visiting the bookshelves in your basement, and wish I could come and borrow a few books. I have not read anything by Harry Harrison but my son found me a couple to try. I have read Heinlein but not recently. I have also sampled books by Asimov. In fact I read The End of Eternity based on your review years ago. (And have read two of the Elijah Baley mysteries by him.) Alan Dean Foster is new to me. Thanks for sharing your bookshelves.
I recently finished reading The Collapsing Empire, and you were the one who got me started reading Scalzi’s books. Now I am reading Fearless Jones by Walter Mosley. Don’t know what I will read next, I have been reading some historical fiction.
This is TracyK at Bitter Tea and Mystery. At some sites I have to log in as tracybham.
Hi Tracey! I have yet to read Scalzi’s latest trilogy. Am loving the covers though and I imagine I will get to them sooner or later.
I’ll be curious to see what you think of Harrison. I haven’t read Heinlein in a few years either and I need to remedy that. My problem with these shelves is I look at the unread books but then hunger to reread those I’ve already read!
I’m glad you enjoyed End of Eternity. Good book! If you like short stories, The Martian Way collection is really good. Actually I think these are all novellas, and I believe there are just four in the book. Worth tracking down.
You are welcome to swing by for a book pick up! 🙂
Hey Carl, so nice to here from you! Great idea for a new angle, I look forward to seeing where this goes.
I was drawn to your Heilein shelf- one of my favorite authors and one who has most of my te-reads! I only see one title of his there that I have not read, “The Number of the Beast”.
My favs are “Have Spacesuit Will Travel”, ”Podkayne of Mars”, and one I don’t see, ”The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” (my personal favorite”). I spent most of my adolescence with my nose in these and other sci-fi covers, and look back longingly on those days when my time was my own. Thanks so much for these memories, I hope to post some shots of my shelves soon. You may be surprised how much they resemble yours!
Best wishes,
Balta Wolf
For your own sanity I would recommend that you spend the time going online and reading the entertaining negative reviews about The Number of the Beast, and not reading the book! I am pretty certain it is considered Heinlein’s worst novel and if I remember correctly it doesn’t really end, or at least end well, it just kind of stops. But I could be remembering that wrong. I pretty much stay away from Heinlein’s later work at this point. Too much embarrassing “free love”. It is funny that Heinlein’s “juveniles” are arguably his best work and his later work is filled with a lot of “juvenile” ideas of free sex with everyone with little to no consequences.
I have a nice large format paperback of Moon is a Harsh Mistress upstairs with my other larger format Heinlein books. I really need to finish Have Spacesuit. I have the full cast audio, which I like, and have started it several times but never finished it. Which is all about me, not about the story, which has been good to the point I’ve listened.
I wish I had read more of this kind of science fiction when I was younger, but I can’t really complain as exploring a variety of reading from library check outs as a kid means that I have continued to have a variety of genre loves.
Still, when I discover one of these classic science fiction works and really enjoy it, I do feel as if I’ve missed out, especially since when I was younger I really felt like all of these science fictional worlds and gizmos were a possibility for my adult life.
Hi Carl,
I’m so glad you’re able to participate in Bookshelf Travelling.
I’m fascinated by your sci-fi mass-market paperbacks from days of yore. And the photography of your shelves in what I imagine must be a darkish basement. Just happens I’m writing about my mass-market paperback shelf today.
I’m not a sci-fi reader, but the name Robert Heinlein jumped out at me because I read Stranger in a Strange Land in the late 60s and loved it. The other science fiction novel I loved was Dune by William Hebert (Herbert?). And in the late 60s I also read a few Isaac Asimov novels. My sci-fi interest in the late 60s and very early 70s was totally driven by my love of Star Trek, the TV series.
Yes, we have a dark unfinished basement where we have our washer and dryer and an upright freezer. I cordoned off a section years ago with the old kitchen cabinets and several metal shelves a friend gave me and I have florescent lights up in that area where I have several books, art prints and collectibles. We don’t have a large house and I just have too much stuff to keep on the main floor.
I read Dune for the first time a handful of years ago as part of a group read on the blog and I was very impressed. Haven’t wanted to read the rest of the series due to what I’ve heard about it, but I do really like that novel.
I look forward to participating more!
Wow! I had forgotten how good and how long your posts were!! I will take a wild guess here.. wild mind you… that your favorite reads are Science Fiction!! Taaa Daaa! There sure weren’t very many that you haven’t read in that hoard! I hope you have more books (snort) to make another post next Friday lol.
Cath and I are both doing this. Cath links to her blog like you did but I just make a post on FB . No one except Cath goes to my blog anyway LOL.. but I keep my books on it.
I hope you and Mary are staying away from the Nasty Virus! <3
We are doing our best to dodge and weave the ‘Rona, to be sure.
And yes, I am long-winded when it comes to writing.
I have plenty of shelves, and will probably just feature some individual books or book collections for some of these Friday posts if I keep up the motivation to keep doing them.
I certainly believe my first love when it comes to books is science fiction and fantasy, and those two genres certainly make up the bulk of what I own. But I’m glad I’ve been exposed to so many different kinds of books from good teachers in elementary and high school so I grew to enjoy more than that…books that I won’t talk about now as I may feature them in future!
Thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the wonderful old science fiction paperbacks I remember from years ago. What a trip down memory lane. I remember being addicted to A.E. Van Vogt, Clifford Simak and Damon Knight. One series I’ve never read but was thinking about doing so is Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books. I assume you would think they are well worth it?
I’ve read the Foundation trilogy, but not any of the extended books, and I definitely think they are worth it. The first novel is really a series of short stories, and the second two are more like a true novel format.
I’ve not read a lot of Simak, Vogt, or Knight, though I have read at least one short story by each of them.
Carl, there’s plenty of wonderful books in those photos! You must have a wide-ranging collection! Did you know there’s a new Frank Frazetta collection coming out in June?
Yes I did, I follow a Frazetta site on Instagram and I’m pretty sure that is where I saw the mention. I imagine I’ll be snagging that. Also see his kids have reopened the museum. It is one of the places I would like to visit one day.
Hello Carl,
I got to here via the Reader in the wilderness meme.
I just love the look of old SF paperbacks like these. I have lots myself but in UK editions (with some US imports.) They used to be housed on shelves in my study but since we moved to a smaller house six years ago I have to keep mine in bookcases in the garage. Thankfully there is (just) room in the house for my larger, more modern paperbacks and hardbacks. We have books everywhere.
My first bookshelf travelling posts are at https://jackdeighton.co.uk/2020/05/31/sf-bookshelf-travelling-in-insane-times-i/ (SF hardbacks) and https://jackdeighton.co.uk/2020/05/25/bookshelf-travelling-for-insane-times/ (Scottish Fiction.)
I will definitely be over later to check them out. I too love the look of old SF paperbacks. One of my good friends, who has sadly now passed, collected UK editions of books as well as US versions and he showed me some amazing stuff over the years. I can relate to your statement about having books everywhere, we do as well.