I bought the The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nd edition) on in November 1993, when it first came out. It retailed for $75 and I got it for 10% off. It’s a passive massive book, 1,200 pages of fine print and totaling more than 1.3 million words.
I mentioned it earlier today. I was browsing it last night to get ideas for something to read. I lugged it on the train with me this morning and read the introductory sections, themselves fascinating. They included a description for how the book was organized, how the data was collected, and rationale for changes made since the first edition.
On the train ride home, I pulled the massive, 5-1/2 pound book out again, and on a whim, started reading the entries beginning with “A”. It was wonderful. Every entry was fascinating. The print is so small that I only got through about three pages, but I was utterly captured by it. Wow! Who knew!
I’m not saying I’m going to sit down and read The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction cover-to-cover. But it is certainly very entertaining and educating reading so far, and since nothing else has piqued my curiosity lately, I don’t see any reason to stop.
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