Pair of Paperbacks

Planning on spending two days at my folks’ home in PA with the girls. While driving up yesterday afternoon, I had to – had to! – make a stop in Milford, once-home to SF writer Damon Knight and home-away-from-home to numerous others who wrote and brainstormed with him.

Milford has a very nice little used book store I frequent maybe twice a year. Usually I can score at least a pair of outta prints every visit. Yesterday was no different.

First sentences:

Book 1 – Roum is a city built on seven hills.

Book 2 – In those days there were oceans of light and cities in the skies and wild flying beasts of bronze.

Give up? The first book is Nightwings by Robert Silverberg. Over the years I’ve read six or seven of his books, and they are all good reads. No exceptions. Even when I may find the material somewhat distasteful, like last summer reading The Book of Skulls, the writing draws you in, helpless until you reach the novel’s end. Don’t know much about this book, save that it won a Hugo forty-some-odd years back. Should be a quick, fun read.

The second is The Knight of the Swords, by Michael Moorcock. I wrote, here, about reading Moorcock when I was a tween and being enraptured and, quite frankly, a little scared, of the fantasy world that sprung from the man’s mind. Don’t remember anything else – title, characters, plot, theme – so I don’t know how to hunt it down. But this one seems as likely a candidate as any. Again, should be a quick, fun read.

Looking forward to a long, relaxing day today. Slept for ten hours – ten hours! Easy to do when the grandparents are there to rustle the little ones when they wake at 7. I’m still on a short-story kick, so I’ll be working my way through Lem’s Star Diaries this morning, then do a little thinking and writing and job surfing later in the day. Wish me luck, and I’ll wish it back to you.