"Hello, my name is Sid..."

This post is respectfully dedicated to 15th century Dutch humanist scholar and theologian Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, whose famous quote:

"When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food and clothes."

is an inspiration to us all.

My god - I've just been sorting through books as a start to the process of cleaning up the study in preparation for my sister Dorothy's Thanksgiving visit next weekend, and okay, I admit it, I have a problem. (Which I gather is the first step in dealing with addiction.)

Books, books, books! People are startled to discover that I re-read books - and frankly, I'm equally startled to find out that other people don't! What, did you memorize The Lord of the Rings first time through? Impressive, that. But sadly the question of books as reading material is not the issue.

No, at some point I started to take an academic interest in science fiction and fantasy, and I think that was the beginning of the end, or possibly the end of the beginning, as Churchill put it. As a result, I have to confess to owning books that aren't necessarily all that good and that I don't like very much. (These are not always related issues, but we'll talk about the Lensman series another time.) Then why am I still finding - or trying to find - shelf space for these literary dogs, you ask? Ah, that's because of the importance of their position within their genres...

As an example, let's talk about Stanley G. Weinbaum for a moment. (And everybody except Dorothy says, "Who?") Stanley Grauman Weinbaum, (1902-1935) is best known for his short story A Martian Odyssey, first published in the July 1934 edition of Wonder Stories. The story deals with the meeting between a shipwrecked human astronaut and a Martian, and is widely considered to be groundbreaking in its portrayal of a sympathetic alien character. Personally, I've always liked the way it handles the difficulties of communication with aliens.

All well and good, but most fans only know Weinbaum through that one story. However, during his brief career he wrote a selection of short fiction and a couple of novels, one of which, The New Adam, was published posthumously in 1939. I own a later edition - 1969 - and you know, I really didn't enjoy it, and frankly I found it a bit derivative and unoriginal.* But I have to keep the damn thing, Weinbaum is one of those roadmark writers in science fiction.

And it gets worse. The second of the two hardcover omnibus editions of Michael Moorcock's Elric novels that I purchased from The Science Fiction Book of the Month Club is missing a paragraph in Stormbringer, the final book in the series, when compared to my Lancer edition.** (Page 100 in the Lancer version, if you must know.) But the SFBOTMC editions contain a novel that I don't have in paperback, so I can't in good conscience get rid of them.

And so on and so on. Sigh...it must be easy for alcoholics, at least they can throw out their empties. In my case, in spite of the fact that I have six bookshelves in this room, there are still books stacked up that have never been properly shelved even once, there's just no room at the inn.

But hey, there's still hope. As I said, my sister is coming for a Thanksgiving visit, and she mentioned a desire to visit IKEA. Hmmm...I'm pretty sure I can fit in a 24 inch BILLY shelf over there behind the door...

- Sid

* In comparison to his peers, whose books I also have.

** At this point, most people say, "You're kidding." I know, I'm as surprised as you are that they'd leave out a whole paragraph like that.