Today (January 31) is the deadline to get a membership (attending or supporting) to Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention if you wish to nominate works for the Hugo Award. You don’t have to nominate today, but your membership must be purchased by today in order to do so. Supporting memberships are $40 US. Information about costs for citizens of other countries is on the website.
Keep in mind this is nominating for the Hugos, which will establish the final ballot. The membership deadline for voting on the final ballot is later in the year.
Maybe one day I’ll be able to take part. For now, I rely on people like you to find good books. I took my kids to the library the other day. I haven’t been in one in ages. I used to live in libraries in my younger days. Lo and behold that old feeling of excitement returning without falter. Technology changed a lot since my days. Now you can take out as many books as you want and keep them for a month. Of course I went overboard.
Thanks, I try to find good stuff, especially good stuff that deserves wider attention. I debated spending the money. Last year’s nominees were all things I had read or things I wouldn’t read on a dare. I’m going to try and nominate some things from indie writers this year.
Libraries would have been my second home when I was a kid if I could have convinced my parents to take me there every day. They said once a week was all they could make time for, which I found to be totally unreasonable at the time. I need to rely on libraries more and bookstores and Amazon less. My wallet would be less empty and my house more empty.
I think my taste in reading material is pretty basic and simple. I want a good, entertaining story that’ll allow my mind to wander off and get lost. That’s pretty much it. I’m not too interested in preachy things or stories camouflaged to sound speculative.
In my day we could only take out four books per card. My parents rarely went to the library so I constantly borrowed on their cards. I was fortunate that our library was just down the street from where I lived. Fast forward a few years, in law school in the city I used to visit the library every Friday after classes. I’d go out the night to drink and have fun and then I spent the weekend reading. Life was pure bliss back then.
I love to collect books and I love seeing the books I have read over the years. Books that I can visit again and again. You miss out on that if you only use the library. Still, during these times when the wallet is thin and threadbare, the library rocks. Plus I’m more daring with the books I choose, more willing to test a new writer or series. For instance, at the moment I’m reading Warhammer, both the original and 40K, and I especially love Graham McNeill’s voice, or the fact that his vocabulary is so astounding. I love the gritty violence and descriptions of technology infused with daemon magic.
It is good learning material for a writer. But then, most books are.
The libraries I patronized had similar restrictions on how many books you could check out. While the city libraries in all of the towns I lived in were in other parts of town, I was fortunate that all of the school libraries had good science fiction collections. The school I attended in 7th had quite a few anthologies edited by Robert Silverberg, which is where I first read some of my favorites and developed a love for short fiction. Fantasy was just taking off, so there weren’t as many fantasy books available.
When moved between 7th and 8th grades and again when I was in 10th grade. Fortunately both towns had good second hand stores. By this time, most of the books I was interested in weren’t in the library, so I started buying. I’m going to be going back and revisiting many of those titles later this year.
College and graduate school were in cities with a good selection of new and second hand book stores. While I was working on my doctorate, my Friday nights were much like yours, except that I didn’t drink at the time. But I would always hit the B&N on the way home on Friday, visit the coffee shop, and then go home and read for the evening. I was usually too tired from the week to do anything else.
Sounds like bliss if you ask me. Simpler times.
Although it didn’t seem blissful at the time, it was.
True indeed.