I have wanted to read Kenneth Fearing’s 1946 The Big Clock, the novel made into the great Ray Milland film of the same name, for years and years.  To my great delight, about eight or nine months ago I finally found an early 1960s printing at good ol’ Curious Books in East Lansing.  A few days ago, I got around to reading it...and somehow I remembered about Goodreads.com, and I did a review there, which I hadn’t done in two and a half years.

Originally, I was going to link and post the review in my blog, as I’ve done with others, but then I got an even better idea: Why not make a new page in the “My Writings” area that’s specifically for my occasional Goodreads reviews?

OK, so I did it.  Ta daaaaa.  Later reviews will be posted on the blog, hopefully, but for this one I’ll simply link to my new page.  Click there, and then just use the alpha-beta system to find The Big Clock​.

Hope you enjoy,

Rafeeq

I stopped into Curious Books in East Lansing yesterday, and I picked up a Signet Assignment in Eternity with Gene Szafran cover art, plus a newer big softcover of The Door into Summer.  Now they are scanned, and posted at the appropriate pages of my Heinlein cover art galleries.

Enjoy!

​Rafeeq

A few weeks ago I was in Nova Scotia, and I made a point of stopping in to the half-dozen used book joints within driving distance of the lovely cliffside cottage where we were staying.  This Bookapalooza yielded 23 books of many different variety...including a different cover of To Sail Beyond the Sunset.

And then today I stopped in to Curious Books in East Lansing, where I picked an early paperback Double Star in gorgeous purple, another Gene Szafran Puppet Masters with slightly different layout, a movie tie-in Starship Troopers with James Warhola art, and an old anthology from 1951 called Three by Heinlein.

I have scanned these, and now all images are in their appropriate “Heinlein Cover Art” galleries.

Enjoy!

Rafeeq

It’s been weeks and weeks and weeks—or perhaps week and week and week, meaning 3 weeks—since I picked up any books, so I popped into Curious Books in East Lansing today for about 15 minutes.  I found a nice late 1970s Vincent Di Fate cover of The Menace from Earth, which now is posted on the “Collections” page of my Heinlein cover art galleries.

Enjoy!

​Rafeeq

Yesterday I had to go through East Lansing, so I thought, Well, why not...?  I stopped into Curious Books and its sister shop, The Archives, therefore.  In Curious I picked up 3 out of 4 installments of I Will Fear No Evil from Galaxy of late 1970, while at The Archives I got a copy of Glory Road with very nice Carl Lundgren art on the cover.  I scanned all the covers plus the Galaxy interiors, and all now are posted to the appropriate pages of my Heinlein galleries.

Enjoy!

Rafeeq

It had been...well, a few days, I guess, since I went to Curious, so I stopped in again.  Really, I was just looking for a couple of Bradbury paperbacks that would be of use for my current project for Salem.  Since they weren’t there, I figured I’d check into the basement...where I finally found the fourth, and final, installment Citizen of the Galazy published in Astounding in 1957.

Therefore, I scanned the cover by Kelly Freas plus the six interior pen-and-ink drawings by van Dongen, and all are posted to my “Serializations” page.

Enjoy!

​Rafeeq

Yesterday I stopped in to Curious Books in East Lansing—it had been a whopping six weeks or so, right?  What could be the harm?

Well, I did see a few books of interest here and there, but I was actually thinking I would just hang loose and save my pennies for another day...until I saw the old Heinlein pulps, namely “Beyond This Horizon” from Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1942 and May 1942.  Only the first cover depicted Heinlein, while the second depicted an A.E. Van Vogt, but both, however, had pen-and-ink interiors by Hubert Rogers as well.

These lovely artifacts from a lifetime ago are hard for me to resist.  I did not resist, therefore.

And then as I was checking out, Ray Walsh, the proprietor, who apparently knows his marks just a tad too well, asked if I had seen this old library copy of the Scribner’s juvie Citizen of the Galaxy.  Deftly he conjured it from somewhere around his credit card machine, and yet, pointedly, before he had run my card...  ’Twas significantly cheaper than the non-library edition I already saw, but sort of still real money.  There was a 20% off sale, though, so oh, well.

I scanned all covers and, for those huge old pulps, interiors as well.  Citizen of the Galazy is now on my Scribner’s YA/Juveniles page, and the Astounding with “Beyond This Horizon” are on my Pulp Magazines page.

Enjoy!

Rafeeq

A few weeks ago at Curious Books I picked up a couple beautiful old Astounding Science-Fiction pulps from 1942, containing Heinlein’s “Goldfish Bowl” and “Waldo.”

While I had immediately scanned those covers, it wasn’t until today that I got around to scanning their interior pen-and-ink art: 3 by Kramer for the Anson MacDonald-pseudonym “Goldfish Bowl” and 7 by Orban for “Waldo.”

These two issues of Astounding are huge—as big as the Unknown in my collection—and that makes scanning of interiors a tad easier.  All are posted to the Pulp Magazines page of my site.

Fans of old SF art, enjoy!

Rafeeq

Yesterday I needed to go to Curious Books in East Lansing to pick up a couple stray Bradbury collections for a big text on Ray Bradbury I'll be putting together for next year—which perhaps should be another post in itself, come to think of it—when I figured that as long as I was in, I should check for any Heinlein of interest, too...

Upstairs I found a nice first-edition hardcover of Expanded Universe and a newer edition of Time Enough for Love with quite a decent cover illustration.  But then downstairs—ah, downstairs!—I found two beautiful old Heinlein pulps: “Waldo” from August 1942 and “Goldfish Bowl” from March 1942,  Both have lovely covers by Hubert Rogers, though only the one for “Waldo” (pictured here) depicts the Heinlein story, the other one depicting an A.E. Van Vogt.

I should comment that the Astounding each also have several interior line drawings of their Heinlein stories.  I haven't yet taken the plunge on those, though, as that will entail a significant amount of very finicky work with these almost three-quarter-century-old magazines.  But right now at least the books are their appropriate pages, and the magazine covers are on my “Pulp Magazines” page.

Enjoy!

​Rafeeq

I stopped into Curious Books in East Lansing a couple days ago, whereupon Ray Walsh, the proprietor, smiled a self-deprecating greeting and then immediately tempted me with some beautiful vintage hardcover Heinleins...  Most kind of him, really, and most excruciating.  I don't know if he has other victims he does this to, but he sure knows me!  In any event, after picking up another version of the 6xH paperback, I somehow restrained myself and only splurged on a single oldie, a lovely original Doubleday Waldo and Magic, Inc. of 1950.  Both covers are now scanned and in their respective places in my galleries—in “Earlier Adult Works” and “Collections”—so perhaps others may enjoy as well!

​Rafeeq