Posted by Robert Ruork on March 24, 1998 at 20:11:21:
In Reply to: Weird Reading Habit posted by Rob Swiatek on February 26, 1998 at 08:38:42:
: Does anyone else out there do this? I keep a cache of Vance books--deliberately unread, some years old--on my shelf and select only one or two per year, thus prolonging the joy ("future pleasure," I call it) of always having some "new" Vance to read. (Yes, I know the bottom line: Eventually I'll come to an end. But I've succeeded in delaying it.)
: --Rob Swiatek
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Rob,
Here's a good one: I've been a collector of SF for 33+ years, and Vance is by far my favorite author (I must have three or four editions of The Languages of Pao alone!). About twenty years ago, I began stashing boxes of books in in the "family home's" attic on the north coast of California, where they've been sitting ever since.
I live in Australia now, but was back for a brief visit last week. I thought, now's my chance to dig for those Vance classics I hadn't re-read for so many years and drag them back to my growing collection in Australia (This great web site has re-kindled my passion over the past few months, and Amazon has shipped me Ports of Call as of 3/17).
I'd worked my way back to about the 10th box, reached in an pulled out an early DAW edition of EMPHYRIO with unalloyed glee -- only to have a saucer-sized scorpion the color of anthracite skitter up my arm and under my shirt. I literally hit the roof, was knocked senseless, and fell down the ladder to the garage floor.
When I came to, the book was still clutched in my hand and the scorpion was sitting on the dusty cover like some protective manticore, tail poised to strike. I put the book down, bowed to the beast and explained my rights to the dusty tome. I swear, the thing lowered its tail and scuttled away -- doubtless to resume its position as my personal sentinel. Wow.
You can believe this or not, but I got the bump on the head to prove it.
Robert Ruork
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