Went to Friends of the Library Book Sale Last Sunday

From last Saturday through yesterday (Oct. 24-28), Gainesville had its twice-a-year Friends of the Library book sale, which always attracts a big crowd.  Back in April, I went there with my son Will on Saturday morning when the sale began...the people at the North Main Street warehouse where it is held were so densely packed that it was nearly impossible to do any effective browsing.  This time around, Will repeated the Saturday morning visit there while I slept in.  Instead, I drove around on Sunday afternoon, found a parking space close to the site, and, although there were still many people there, I found that I could maneuver around the facility.  I needn't have bothered, though: I chose the three books I wanted to buy (for the grand sum of one dollar) at the first table I reached, marked "Science Fiction and Fantasy".  These books were Disclosure by Michael Crichton, The Winds of Altair by Ben Bova, and Expanded Universe by Robert Heinlein.  Disclosure doesn't exactly fit into the sci-fi genre of fiction, but since the author had other works in that area (like Andromeda Strain, Prey, and Jurassic Park), that's where it was stocked.  Ben Bova is an author that I've heard good things about but haven't yet read.  And Expanded Universe is a collection of short science fiction stories and essays by Robert Heinlein, one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time.  I've begun reading Disclosure, published in 1993, and already I can see that it is seriously outdated.  The novel deals with the development of computer software technology and the vision of using CD-ROMs to store massive amounts of data. On the other hand, the idea of virtual reality technology, which seems for some reason to be lagging behind in its development and marketing in our "real" world, is being pushed in the story (back in 1993) as something about to explode upon the scene...

The books should be fun reading, and I'm looking forward to reading some of the views of Heinlein on various issues...