SF Signal: Book Store Splurge

Book Store Splurge

Half Price Books is having a 20% off sale this weekend, which means, mathematically speaking, that it's more like 60%-Off Books. As if I needed another reason to dump money in their coffers.

Tonight I stumbled across the Easton Press Collector's Edition of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. For those who don't know, Easton Press publishes hoity-toity, leather-bound version of books with gilded pages and a built-in bookmark ribbon. Mmmmmmm...biblioholic goodness.....

I carried it around the store in a biblioholic fugue for a while even though I had no intention of buying it. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) I have never read Hyperion so it was questionable to me that I needed a Collector's Edition. I remembered that both JP and Kevin swear on their mothers' knickers - which, creepily, is the same pair - that it is a very good book, so I I started thinking. (Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!) The price tag on the book was $10, meaning it would ring up at $8 + tax post-sale. Surely, 8 beans is but a pittance to pay for a book recommended by both JP and Kevin. The new mass-market paperback sells for the same price so why not get a leather-bound, gilded-paged, bookmark-ribboned hardback that I know sells for $40 or more?

Not that I needed the nudging but I splurged and bought the book. Actually, I ran from the store, book clutched to chest, giggling like the school girl that I am.

Is biblioholism covered under medical insurance?

Hmmm, for some reason I had no trouble at all picturing John clutching some book walking around the bookstore, however the thing that really bothers me is that I had no trouble picturing him running from the store giggling like a school girl . .

Posted by Rich on Friday September 16, 2005 at 11:58 PM

I'm a Dan Simmons SF fan boy. Not so big on his non-SF stuff. Although I did enjoy Summer of Night, even if it was a bit slow and very Stephen Kingish, and I did like Carrion Comfort as well. Other than those, his other non-SF books haven't been as interesting.

A note on Hyperion: Remember, there are 4 books in this series. That one, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. These are not just action-adventure space opera SF, although it has that too. They are also philosophical discussions on the nature of humanity, intelligence, sentience, etc. They can get quite heavy, much like Schroeder's books, only on a galactic scale and with on of the most interesting/enigmatic 'characters' I've ever read about, the Shrike. Devote some time to it when you read it.

Posted by jp on Saturday September 17, 2005 at 9:03 AM

OK, will do.

Yeah, I know about the sequels. And, in true biblioholic fashion, I already own mmpb copies of all the books. If I put the new Collector's Edition in the book queue, I should get around to it by...let's see...[checks schedule]...2086! Will this post still be here by then to remind me?

Posted by John on Saturday September 17, 2005 at 10:12 AM