Books are the new books.

There is something wonderful about old books.  I love the smell and the way they feel.  I love the worn cover and yellow pages.  My most favourite type of old books has to be science fiction books.  I love the ones written in the fifties, sixties and seventies the very most.

The most wonderful thing about them is that anything was still possible.  They talk of simulacra, poop sheets and scutters.  Stories of lush jungles on Venus and ebbing oceans on Mars.  There are people who risk everything and people who are sacrificed.  There is a bit of sexism too, and who doesn't like a bit of that? (Ok, that bit isn't so great...)

The stories are about people with the technology and the location being incidental.  Whole lives can be lived in a day and worlds destroyed in an instant.  One can live vicariously through a runner on last day as he strives for sanctuary.  You can feel the importance of Mercerism in a world so devoid of hope and empathy.  You can feel for the robots as they find loopholes in the three laws and even become human.  You can enjoy your meals knowing it isn't soylent green... And thank god for that!

I wish we could write like they did.  I know it sounds rather old of me but they really don't make them like this any more.  I love the way they incorporate now obsolete technology in their future visions, they didn't need to describe or create an iPad to make a great story or invent a type of nuclear fusion engine to travel across the universe.  They had poop sheets.  They didn't need to invent the engine, it was just there and it simply worked. 

I don't have to be my boring self. I can be an astronaut, a bounty hunter, a nexus 6: ANYTHING.  The future is here and it came from 1966 or maybe 1974.


Some books you need to read right now in case you wake up dead in the morning...*:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K Dick
A Maze of Death - Philip K Dick
Make Room! Make Room! - Harry Harrison
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Welcome to Infinity - Grant Naylor
The Midwich Cukoos - John Wyndam
Buy Jupiter - Issac Asimov

*Just to name a few.  Maybe you have read none of them or you have read them all, either way you should go and buy them all now and read them because they kick the asses of sparkly vampires and what ever other crap kids these days are reading...

Some of my newest babies!