After my last post, I found in iBooks a Best Of Henry Kuttner, one of those books from SF Gateway, which has been republishing classic SF in ebook format.
It had some very familiar stories I last read many years ago. "Mimsy Were The Borogroves" was the first in the book. I think somewhere I have a vinyl recording of William Shatner reading that, but I'll need one of those special turntables to record it on to USB stick, then burn it to CD. It's the famous story about two children playing with toys sent from the far distant future by a man trying to build a time machine. They're his son's old toys and he just wants to use them to try out his prototype but he gives up when three tests don't bring the machine back. One of the three is picked up by a little girl in 19th century England, who has an "Uncle Charles" - hence the first verse of "Jabberwocky", which is a code ... I think he may have written that with his wife, C.L Moore, who was best known for her horror and fantasy fiction.
There's also "Nothing But Gingerbread Left", which I'm looking forward to rereading. You know how you sometimes can't get a song or tune out of your head? Well, some folk in the U.S. use that in the war against the Nazis. Delightful!
And, best of all, not one, but two Hogben stories! I didn't think you could get those in ebook(though there was that one short story I mentioned in my last post). One of the stories, "Cold War", I've read, but am happy to read again. The other, "Exit The Professor", I haven't.
I know there was a book called The Hogben Chronicles, published a few years ago by crowdfunding, but I think it was a limited edition and it was only in print. There were, at the time, copyright issues that didn't allow for ebooks.
But hopefully, sooner or later, things do change for most books. Ray Bradbury wouldn't allow his books in ebook for years, but now they're available. Harper Lee took a long time about it, but finally agreed to let her classic novel be ebooked.
You just have to be patient and keep looking.
Back to my new book!
It had some very familiar stories I last read many years ago. "Mimsy Were The Borogroves" was the first in the book. I think somewhere I have a vinyl recording of William Shatner reading that, but I'll need one of those special turntables to record it on to USB stick, then burn it to CD. It's the famous story about two children playing with toys sent from the far distant future by a man trying to build a time machine. They're his son's old toys and he just wants to use them to try out his prototype but he gives up when three tests don't bring the machine back. One of the three is picked up by a little girl in 19th century England, who has an "Uncle Charles" - hence the first verse of "Jabberwocky", which is a code ... I think he may have written that with his wife, C.L Moore, who was best known for her horror and fantasy fiction.
There's also "Nothing But Gingerbread Left", which I'm looking forward to rereading. You know how you sometimes can't get a song or tune out of your head? Well, some folk in the U.S. use that in the war against the Nazis. Delightful!
And, best of all, not one, but two Hogben stories! I didn't think you could get those in ebook(though there was that one short story I mentioned in my last post). One of the stories, "Cold War", I've read, but am happy to read again. The other, "Exit The Professor", I haven't.
I know there was a book called The Hogben Chronicles, published a few years ago by crowdfunding, but I think it was a limited edition and it was only in print. There were, at the time, copyright issues that didn't allow for ebooks.
But hopefully, sooner or later, things do change for most books. Ray Bradbury wouldn't allow his books in ebook for years, but now they're available. Harper Lee took a long time about it, but finally agreed to let her classic novel be ebooked.
You just have to be patient and keep looking.
Back to my new book!
How wonderful! I hope that all the old books get put out as ebooks as time goes on. (And I hope the prices are reasonable.)
ReplyDeleteSo do I! :-) We can only hope... As for the prices, you never can tell. Mostly ebooks are not too dear - I think this one was $8.99 - but I've seen some of the non fiction books for $$$!
ReplyDeleteOooh, this sounds like lots of fun! I'll have to take a look--that Lewis Carroll one sounds delightful.
ReplyDeleteYes, Henry Kuttner was a delightfully entertaining writer.
ReplyDelete