Shopping

So I went book shopping after work today.  It's Maria's fault and I'll tell you why later.  While I didn't find the book I was looking for I did end up with two when I left.  Furthermore, in going book shopping I was able to clear out a stack on trade-in books that was getting precariously tall on my floor.  


I bought Litany of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe because he is amazing though that is no secret.  This book contains first two books in his The Book of the Long Sun series:  Nightside of the Long Sun and Lakeside of the Long Sun.  It's an attractive paperback from Orb that comes in at around five-hundred fifty pages.  I already own Epiphany of the Long Sun, the last two books in the series, which contains Caldé of the Long Sun and Exodus from the Long Sun in hardback in a Guild America Books edition.  So, all-in-all, it's a mismatched collection of The Book of the Long Sun.  I can't explain to you why, but I want a complete collection of each: the second half of the Orb edition and the first half of the Guild America Books edition.  And yes, I already know I'm crazy.  


Wolf remains the only science fiction writer that I read with no reservation.  (That said I've never considered Michael Swanwick a science fiction writer, thus I read his work all the time...)  Also , Wolfe remains the only writer in any field that I will risk reading a book in a series.  Presently, I'm finishing The Urth of the New Sun by Wolfe--which is better than I ever thought possible--and so, I'll probably take a break from Wolfe for a while because he makes my head hurt with awesome juice.  


The second book I bought is one of those that makes you mad at the publishing industry.  The name is horrible: (and therein may lie many of the answers for my anger) Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy edited by Al Sarrantonio.  How is it possible that such a collection of short stories is ever published by such an amazing amount of authors and yet I've never heard about it until I accidentally come across it in a second hand book store?  It could be awful, but seriously, look at the author line up.  It's not likely that this original anthology sucks.  I'm looking forward to getting to this one sooner than later.  


As for the book Maria brought to my attention for our joint read (oops did I spill the beans?!?!) more on that later.