Guilty Pleasures
Like most readers, not everything I read is award-worthy sf or thought-provoking nonfiction. I read some things purely for pleasure, but those items rarely get mentioned here. So it’s time to air out the dirty laundry and let you all know what I do when I want total relaxation.
• Green Lantern comics. About a year ago I started with issue #1 from 1961 and have gone through several series since. However, I plan to stop when I reach the last Hal Jordan series which was discontinued in 1992. Whoever that Kyle Raynor guy is, he is not my Green Lantern!
• Worlds of IF magazine. Slowly I have been reading the entire series of Galaxy starting with its first 1950 issue, but I have been taking side-trips into IF starting in 1962 when it was taken over by Galaxy. Not all of it appeals to me–I am not a fan of Keith Laumer’s repetitive Retief stories at all–but much of it is very entertaining. One of the authors who did not particularly impress me 40 years ago was A. Bertram Chandler, but upon rereading his John Grimes stories, I find them much better-written than I recalled. I recently bought one of the Science Fiction Book Club collections of his stories, Survey Captain, and am currently enjoying the first novel in the book.
• Deal or No Deal. I rarely watch television because it interferes with my reading, in spite of several highly-acclaimed series currently being aired (such as Battlestar Galactica and Heroes), but I have become addicted to the only show being aired which combines pure greed with probability and statistics, all held together by one of the best game show hosts ever, Howie Mandel. At least I always watch it either with a set of papers to grade or a magazine to read, but I rarely miss this show.
• Green Lantern comics. About a year ago I started with issue #1 from 1961 and have gone through several series since. However, I plan to stop when I reach the last Hal Jordan series which was discontinued in 1992. Whoever that Kyle Raynor guy is, he is not my Green Lantern!
• Worlds of IF magazine. Slowly I have been reading the entire series of Galaxy starting with its first 1950 issue, but I have been taking side-trips into IF starting in 1962 when it was taken over by Galaxy. Not all of it appeals to me–I am not a fan of Keith Laumer’s repetitive Retief stories at all–but much of it is very entertaining. One of the authors who did not particularly impress me 40 years ago was A. Bertram Chandler, but upon rereading his John Grimes stories, I find them much better-written than I recalled. I recently bought one of the Science Fiction Book Club collections of his stories, Survey Captain, and am currently enjoying the first novel in the book.
• Deal or No Deal. I rarely watch television because it interferes with my reading, in spite of several highly-acclaimed series currently being aired (such as Battlestar Galactica and Heroes), but I have become addicted to the only show being aired which combines pure greed with probability and statistics, all held together by one of the best game show hosts ever, Howie Mandel. At least I always watch it either with a set of papers to grade or a magazine to read, but I rarely miss this show.
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