It goes without saying that I am something of a nerd and one of the defining characteristics of being a card carrying member of the Interstellar Brotherhood of Geekdom is a love of science fiction. I no longer remember exactly when I started loving all things science fiction but I do remember when my love of written science fiction began. As a freshman in high school, I was assigned to read Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. I loved this book and began devouring as many science fiction books as I could get my hands on. Looking back 2001 is no longer one of my favorite science fiction novels. Hell, it isn’t even in my top 5 favorite Arthur C. Clarke books.
The top honor goes to The City and The Stars. If you have never read this work, do yourself a favor and pick it up immediately. No other book embodies the spirit and intelligence of science fiction as well as this novel. Upon finishing it, I gave it away so that someone else could experience the wonder. I had planned on simply purchasing another copy. Strangely, no book store I went into ever had a copy in stock. This included new and used book stores. Whenever I went into a book store (and if you have been to my house, you know that this was quite frequently), this would be the first item I searched for. This quest went on for over three years and the book remained elusive. I began to believe that maybe the book was magical and could only be found when one was ready to receive it. Remember, this was before the internet made everything as readily available as the corner grocery store. Eventually I found a dog-eared old copy sitting on the shelf of a used book store and since then have seen it everywhere, but I will never forget that three year quest.
December 16 is Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s 90th birthday and the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Astronomical Association has set up a blog so that people can send Sir Arthur birthday wishes. If his writing has ever touched you or if you simply enjoy the convenience of global communications brought to you by geosynchronous satellites (Sir Arthur came up with the idea), then go and wish him a happy birthday.
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2 comments:
Found your site from dooce's - just stopped by to say hi. I have to post this comment now so I can go finish reading your previous post - the one about shit...
As I recall, you located that book at a used bookstore in Iowa City, just before I moved to Kentucky. Kismet.
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