yeah mine is 95% paperbacks. Most in somewhat-poor condition. They were printed cheap 70 years ago, and the fact they are still viable is an achievement in itself. They are getting hard to find now, partly because 2nd hand bookshops don't stock them because the condition is too bad.
I imagine younger readers would struggle to get into the genre, although I think a lot of the big classics are still accessible. Seeing Dune as a big recent movie shows, I think, that a lot of the themes were tireless and haven't changed. I'm often amazed at how some things could have been written today, with the same social angst, but were written in the 40's or 50's. Poul's insight into advertising (The Space Merchants), Bradbury's commentary on censorship and offence (Fahrenheit 451) are both ones that spring to mind. But these are not isolated examples - there are lots of others. (Erik Frank Russell's Wasp is a perennial favourite and works as well today as ever.)
> They are getting hard to find now, partly because 2nd hand bookshops don't stock them because the condition is too bad.
In the Netherlands a handful of second hand shops who specialize in sci-fi and fantasy show up at the huge yearly outdoor book-fair in Deventer. We always pick up a bunch of those old paperbacks there (in the original English obviously). This August the fair returned for the first time since the start of the pandemic shut it down — only 500 stands instead of the usual 800, so hopefully next year will be back to full strength. I would expect such specialised sellers (and large book-fairs) to exists in most countries (although the Deventer one is the largest in Europe).
Good recommendations, Dune certainly is as good now as then (I guess, being born after its release), but I wouldn't blindly recommend everything by, say, Heinlein (like The Moon is a Harsh Mistress stands the test of time, but many of his juveniles and later works are an acquired taste). Good bookshops and publishers already do a lot of that curation by their choice of new editions of older works of course.
yeah, Heinlein is not my favourite, and I find most of his stuff to be hard work. I really wanted to like Stranger in a Strange Land (because it's an awesome title) but alas it seems like every book is trying to push some specific social agenda which may have been big at the time (or maybe not?) but now just seems out of place.
>> In the Netherlands a handful of second hand shops who specialize in sci-fi and fantasy show up at the huge yearly outdoor book-fair in Deventer.
consider yourself lucky then! There's nothing like that here. Which is perhaps good for my wallet...
I imagine younger readers would struggle to get into the genre, although I think a lot of the big classics are still accessible. Seeing Dune as a big recent movie shows, I think, that a lot of the themes were tireless and haven't changed. I'm often amazed at how some things could have been written today, with the same social angst, but were written in the 40's or 50's. Poul's insight into advertising (The Space Merchants), Bradbury's commentary on censorship and offence (Fahrenheit 451) are both ones that spring to mind. But these are not isolated examples - there are lots of others. (Erik Frank Russell's Wasp is a perennial favourite and works as well today as ever.)