Today is the anniversery of the birth of Issac Asimov, January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992, one of the Grand Old Men of Science Fiction.
Oh, how I love the Asimov Day Traditions! Sitting under a computational logic tree & unwrapping our gifts, filled with sideburns! 
Post your Asimov memories/favorites here!
I saw him lecture twice, and again briefly at NorEasCon III shortly before he died. For thev first lecture I had to get out of my war and Peace course, taught by a true Russian professor. I showed her the lectyure ticket, which she scrutinized with a skeptical eye.
“Who is this … Asimov?” she asked, pronouncing the name in its Russian properness (and implying that, no matter who he was, he couldn’t be as important as her course). I was surprised that she’d never heard of him, so I had to explain who Isaac asimov was in order to get excused from class.
At the lecture, I asked him a question – why did the intro her wrote to Baxter and Atkins’ then-just-published book The Fire Came Down (which claimed the Tunguska meteorite was an alien spacecraft) contradict the intro he wrote to Soviet Science Fiction (where he had ridiculed the same hypothesis)? He said that, basically, it had seemed a good idea at the time, but Jim Oberg set him straight.
He still autographed my ticket.
I think the first SF I ever read was Asimov. I don’t remember which one, exactly, but I’m sure it was one of his. This led me quickly to Heinlein, and the rest is history. Never got to meet the man, but I at one time owned most of his books. When I moved I sold 150+ of them to a friend. I still miss having them around for reference.
For this holiday, I grill all of my robots on the 3 Laws, and then concoct experiments to make sure everything is still alright with their positronic brains.
The key to having a good Asimov’s Day is you’ve got to make plans one thousand years ahead of time.
Don’t forget the bolo ties! Gotta have the tie. And the glasses.
Gather round, children! Let me tell you all about “The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline”.
Oh, I guess I’ll have to give my robot the day off, too.
Good post, Bosda, and thank you for the happy memories.
While I never had the privilege of meeting the Good Doctor in person, I am one of his biggest fans and do miss him terribly. A truly remarkable person.
All the more so for someone who wrote galaxy-spanning science fiction and yet was afraid to fly. Do he contradict himself? Very well, then, he do contradict himself; he are large, he contain multitudes!
Anyone remember the short story collection “Asmov’s Mysterys” ? Now I gotta dig it from the garage or attic and re read it!
One of the first SF novels I read was Caves of Steel. This Christmas I gave a 13-year-old cousin a two-in-one book with that and The Naked Sun. Let’s see if I can corrupt him early …
Driving back home yesterday, I was listening to The Diane Rehm Show, where some guy was going on about “Nature Deficit Disorder”. I have no idea how conclusive his research is (they didn’t go into the statistics in detail), but his basic premise was that children today just don’t get out into the woods much nowadays. They would much rather stay indoors and play video games. I so very much wanted to be able to send Asimov an email about this and say “And so it begins.”
Yea, I know he died 13 years ago. It still seems recent to me.
When I was in AP English Language in high school, we each had to choose an author to analyze in a really really long paper. Mine ended up being 90 pages. Style and mechanics analysis, tone and imagery, biographical information, deconstructing excerpts, et cetera.
Naturally I chose Asimov. What I learned both surprised and enthralled me. The man had over 500 books to his name when he died. On the back of the binder containing my paper, I placed a photograph of Asimov sitting in a chair made entirely of his own books. How awesome is that?
On a more serious note, I was absolutely amazed by the clarity with which he wrote. Everything was step by step, orderly and progressive. I suppose that’s what made him such an excellent science writer.
Well, CLEARLY I was too busy celebrating yesterday to come in here and post, but better late than never!
The original Foundation trilogy will always be my favorite. It was the first of his works that I ever read. Other favorites include the original novella version of “Nightfall” and “The End of Eternity.”
Happy Belated to you, Isaac!
If you like Asimov’s writing style you should try his autobiographies. I enjoyed those as much as his fiction. In Memory Yet Green and In Joy Still Felt cover his life up to 1978. There’s also I, Asimov which catches up the last years of his life and Yours, Isaac Asimov: A Life in Letters edited by his brother.
