In a few hours of spare time I was able to get to the Book Garden and start loading up ... they didn't have any wide swaths of single authors whose works I was dying for this time, the way I loaded up on Clifford Simak last time. And I got there pretty late, near closing time, so my wandering through the warehouse was cut short, but I might make another trip there, if I can. I didn't even get to look seriously at the random comic book collections.
The most fun thing I picked up was either That's All Folks! The Art of Warner Brothers Animation or -- and I quiver nerdishly at mentioning this -- Tron: The Storybook. Some purchases go beyond logic, or price. There are times I feel like all I come home for is to get a haircut, shop for used books, and get some more Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes on DVD (got a bunch in the mail today, in fact), but that can be satisfying enough.
Though I didn't buy it, I leafed through a Galaxy magazine from about 1977, with a columnist complaining about the sad and declining state of science fiction and pointing out a recurring problem -- the tendency to keep reader interest by ``heightening the stakes'' leading to an endless progression of stories in which the protagonist's actions determine the fate of civilization, humanity, the planet, the galaxy, and/or the universe. You don't want to give up that card only science fiction and fantasy can play -- there's no Western, say, where if the hero can't draw fast enough the Sun will nova -- but, yeah, it could be played with a little more restraint. See 55 percent of all Modern Trek episodes. (I'd thought Galaxy was out of print by 1977.)
Trivia: Douglas Rain was hired originally for 2001: A Space Odyssey as the narrator. Source: The Making of Kubrick's 2001, Jerome Agel.
Currently Reading: Discoveries: The Voyages of Captain Cook, Nicholas Thomas.