My Other, Other, OTHER Hobby

I have always been an enthusiastic reader and a lover of books. I still have vivid memories of my elementary school library (Town Line School in Spencerport, New York, by the way) right down to the physical location of many of the books I consumed during those formative years. Thanks to my father's passion for good science fiction, there was also a decent-size home library I was able to mine as well and thus, by the time I was moving on to Junior High, I had already read dozens of books and short stories by the likes of Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Richard Matheson, Jack Vance, and so many more.

Over the decades, I have continued to love reading and my list of favorite authors includes Alfred Bester, John Christopher, David Gerrold, Frank Herbert, John Wyndham, and many others, and I have endeavored to collect their published works in a variety of editions. This has led to me being a casual collector of books and one way I celebrate this is by attending the annual Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collectors Show held here in March. While this year was promoted as the 45th such event, I have only been attending since 2002, back when it was still held at the labyrinthine Mission Hills Inn and special guests included people like Ray Bradbury, George Clayton Johnson, and Frederick Pohl.

This year, the show returned to the Glendale Civic Auditorium where it has been since 2014 and I wound up with 21 "new" additions to my collection, many of which were either impulse buys or purchases based on recent recommendations. I also grabbed a couple volumes to fill gaps in my collection or to replace badly worn copies of books I already own.

All told, I spent about $65 and I'm really happy with the stuff I brought home.

A few highlights include: 

• Six books in the Dray Prescot sword and planet series written by Alan Burt Akers. Artist Tim Kirk was in attendance, so I was able to get him to sign one of them.
• Flash Gordon: the Witch Queen of Mongo by Carson Bingham (the only book in this short, six-book series from the '70s that I didn't own).
• Shot in the Dark, a collection of 23(!) short science fiction stories by a number of terrific authors including Leigh Brackett, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Jack London, Isaac Asimov, and others. It has a great cover by Herman Bischoff!
• The Science Fiction Galaxy, a collection of 12 stories by various authors, but in a unique, sturdy, hardback format with a bright yellow cover.
• Alien Skies by Peter Dagmar (a lesser-known SF author) - his first novel, published by Digit in the UK.
• Atoms and Evil by Robert Bloch (author of Psycho), a collection of his stories published by Fawcett/Gold Medal.

It's a pity this show only comes once a year, but then again, it gives us plenty of time to READ a lot of these books in anticipation of the next event.

I hope to see a few of you back for the 46th annual show in 2026!