Itinerary through PJF Land

During my errands today with Patch, we drove to my secret used book resource, twenty-five miles south, the ultimate used book store that has just about everything under the sun. I visit it about twice a year. The last time I was there, though was last September. So I was way overdue.

Went there and scored five Philip Jose Farmer books. All for under twenty bucks. Not bad, considering most are out of print anyway. I purchased, in chronologically-published order:

Night of Light © 1966
A Private Cosmos © 1968
Flight to Opar © 1976
Two Hawks from Earth © 1979
The Cache © 1981

(that’s 1,238 pages)


I have, on the shelf behind me:

The Maker of Universes © 1965
The Gates of Creation ©1966
Riders of the Purple Wage © 1967
Behind the Walls of Terra © 1970
The Lavalite World © 1977

(that’s 879 pages)


In a box in the attic, I need to fish out:

The Lovers © 1961
The Stone God Awakens © 1970
The Windwhales of Ishmael © 1971

(dunno, but I’d guess that’s about 500 pages)


Still have a couple of WW2-themed books to get through as well as a bunch of unrelated sci-fi by the end of the year. But starting January 1, I want to read this guy exclusively, each and every one of those 2,600-plus pages, for reasons mentioned here, for a few months. Then I want to write something based on that experience, and not just a review or a big blog post. Something fiction-ish. It’s the “ish” part of that that intrigues me.

I’ll probably read the first two groups of novels above first. Five of those are part of his “World of Tiers” sequence. The others are stand-alone or parts of other sequences I’m not that interested in. The third group of books are all works I read two-to-ten years ago that I’d like to re-read. Two of them I’ve reviewed already on the Hopper.

Don’t have anything for PJF’s most famous series, the “Riverworld” series. That’s what I really want to read. May have to splurge and buy them new. Saw a big fat new compendium of the first two of those novels at B&N. Maybe next month of birthdays or Christmas-time, when the B&N gift cards flow in.

Well, I’m excited, as are the probably three or four other people on the planet who have done something similar. Can’t wait to start!