Back when I was a kid, SF stores had a lot of books from the 60’s and 70’s, especially the Daw Paperbacks. Remember those? They would have a yellow spine, and the “Moorcock” and “Philip K. Dick” sections of the shelves would be swaths of pure chrome yellow.
Also, they had a lot of books by the old masters. It’s been a while since I went to a used bookstore, but it’s hard to find, say, The High Crusade or Niven’s Inferno. And The Best of Trek? Should have picked that up while I had the chance…
I well remember the imprints you refer to. Own many such myself. I shop used bookstores here in Northern KY and over in Cincinnati, and I have no trouble finding these or other paperbacks from the 60s and 70s. Hell, I got lucky one day and bought a great run of Ace Doubles from the late 50s through the late 60s. They’re all still out there, with that great used paperback musty smell. Just got to find that perfect store.
Usually I find these crappy books that look good but seem to have been written by morons. I just finished reading one that was written in 1975 that was hard to follow because the author wrote on the level of a 6 year old, with great plot and action jumps, omitted little things like explanations of what was going on and used a story line I’d expect to find in 6th grade!
I don’t know how he got published. I finished the book, halfway through. I could not take it any more!!
I like the ‘Sten’ series, having only missed 1 book, but no darn used book store has it or many of them and I loved the booked by Larry Niven, the ‘Hole in Space’ type, but few of those are to be found.
I read a lot of horror, and, interestingly, I have found almost every Steven King and Dean Koontz book in these stores.
It’s cirtainly fun to browse through a used bookstore, but for anyone who is searching for specific books or authors (SF or otherwise), and has not found what (s)he seeks in local stores, I recommend
You’re talking about DAW books (Donald A. Wollheim was the editor, the same way Judy Lynn Del-Rey (Lester’s wife) was in charge of Del-Rey). The two of them may have been the best thing to happen to SF since John W. Campbell. Changing from the instantly recognizable yellow spines was a stupid move. I used to be able to spot them on a bookshelf at 20 feet and know that I’d get something I enjoy.
The mid-60’s through say, the mid-80s was a great time for SF paperbacks. <sigh>
I guess what they say is true: The Golden Age of Science Fiction is 12.
Over the past few months I have been rebuilding my SF library. Used bookstores, library sales, and Goodwill have been my sources.
Last week I found Babel-17 by Delaney and Downward to Earth by Silverberg, both printed before 1972. I am especially interested in reading the Silverberg work, as I have just come out of a Joseph Conrad phase and I understand it has deliberate parallels with Heart of Darkness. I picked up Orbit 10 and three years worth of _Best of …_s for a quarter each. One of these has Tiptree’s Houston, Houston Do You Read…
I had not noticed the lack of DAW books until you mentioned it. Damn, the only yellow spines I’ve seen in years are my complete Gor collection…
Remember the ‘Danny Dunn’ books? Paperback, wider then most, bright yellow? Kid books, but the main character, Danny, was a kid inventer, always cobbling together kooky stuff that worked.
I only managed to find and read a few of those books when I was a kid, but I loved them. I still have one, packed away with my other ancient treasures.
Not strictly sci-fi, but I’ve found that Mercedes Lackey is next to impossible to find in used book stores. I guess nobody ever sells their copies when they’re done reading them.
Thanks for the link to Bibliofind! I’ve been looking for one particular fantasy novel (Saga of Old City by Gary Gygax) that’s been out of print forever, and finally found it on that site! Thanks muchly!
Ah the Gord the Rogue series! That takes me back. A fine set of stories. I am glad they are reprinting the Moorcock stories. I’d never be able to read the ones I lack otherwise. What I miss is the early Doctor Who novelizations. Just can’t find them much anymore.
I had to stop reading any of Moorcock’s “Eternal Champion” books. Manny years ago I started one that I thought I might have read before. After I finished it, I still wasn’t sure if I had read it before. He played too many variations on the same theme for me.
For people looking for used books, I’ve found by far the best meta-search engine is http://www.addall.com/Used/ which I consider the “Google” of used book search engines. Just stay away from the radio history texts…