Came home to some new books in the mail today.  First off, one of two rare Isaac Asimov books that were not already in my Asimov collection,  Our Federal Union: The United States from 1816 to 1865.

Next on the list is Alastair Reynolds’ first novel Revelation Space.  I saw this book on a must-read list and I’ve never read anything by Reynolds besides some of his short fiction.  I figured I’d give it a try.  It wasn’t available on the Kindle so it arrived in today’s mail.

Finally (and also not available on the Kindle) is physicist Steven Weinberg’s latest, Lake Views: this world and the universe, a collection of essays.  (Pictured.)  I’ve never read anything by Steven Weinberg before, but the review for the book in the February 2010 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN made it sound like a fascinating read.

At present I’m making my way through Connie Willis’ intriguing novel, Blackout, to say nothing of two issues of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN and two issues of NEW SCIENTIST.

Getting the office setup and organized, and purging some books reminded me of some of the cool things I have in my collection. I’ve picked out a few of these things to highlight below.

I’ve got nearly 200 Isaac Asimov books, including some rare books and 3 signed books. Among some of the rare books, are four of his five "annotations". Here’s a picture of three of those books, Asimov’s Annotated Don Juan, Asimov’s Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan, and the Annotated Gulliver’s Travels. (The fourth one, not pictured, is Familiar Poems, Annotated.) The only one I’m missing is the Asimov’s Annotated Paradise Lost. These are all first editions:

I have three books signed by Asimov: a hardcover edition of In Joy Still Felt, an old paperback copy of The Caves of Steel, and this first edition of Murder at the ABA:

I have a number of friends who have had books published and who have been kind enough to sign copies of their books for me. Here are a few of them:

First, there is Michael A. Burstein’s () excellent collection of short fiction, I Remember the Future, nestled comfortably between William Burrows’s This New Ocean and Italo Calvino’s, If On a Winter’s Night, A Traveler…

Then there is David B. Coe’s first novel, Children of Amarid, between John Clute’s Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Michael Collins’ Carrying the Fire.

And then there is Edmund Schubert’s novel, Dreaming Creek, nestled between Healer’s War and an anthology of science fiction from ANALOG. Edmund is the editor of Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, and he bought and published my first story, "When I Kissed the Learned Astronomer".

I am a huge Barry Malzberg fan and have many of his books, both paperback and hardcovers, first editions when I could get them. Here’s what I mean:

I met Barry at Readercon 2008 and he was very kind to me there. He signed two of my favorite books of his, Herovit’s World and Beyond Apollo, both first editions:

Robert J. Sawyer (author of the book for which the ABC series FLASH FORWARD is based) was so cool to me at RavenCon in 2007. At the time, his novel Rollback had just come out and when he signed it for me, he signed to me as a "fellow writer":

Children’s author, songwriter and performer Barry Louis Polisar was my land lord for 6 years when I lived in Maryland. During that time, he signed one of his many books for me. He is a great guy, a real mensch:

And then there are the magazines. Here is just a sampling, beginning with my complete collection of SCIENCE FICTION AGE, edited by Scott Edelman () between 1992-2000. To this day, I believe it was the best all-around science fiction magazine ever produced.

The first time I met Scott in person, at Capclave 2007, he was kind enough to sign the premier issue for me. That issue is pictured below, along side the January 1993 issue of the magazine which contains Bill Shunn’s () story, "Two Paths in the Forest Toulemonde," which I consider to be the best fantasy story that ever appeared in that magazine. Bill was kind enough to sign that issue for me when I met him in person at Balticon 2007.

There’s more, like the May 1950 issue of ASTOUNDING, which contains L. Ron Hubbard’s original Dianetics essay. Or the August 1945 issue of ASTOUNDING containing A. E. Van Vogt’s "World of A". But I’ll leave you with the image of my complete 1924 edition of H. G. Well’s Outlines of History:

There’s more interesting stuff, but I’ll save it for another time.  And just one note, in case anyone asks:  I’m not interested in selling any of it!