Of course we went to Powell’s when we were in Portland last Saturday. No trip there is complete without a visit to Powell’s. Because I’m still trying to avoid buying THINGS, I only bought one book, but I found a TON of books to add to my to-read list, and I had a couple of interesting conversations with random strangers in the science fiction section about Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid novels and The Wheel of Time. Not in the same conversation. It was a good way to spend several hours.
The one book I did buy is Jo Walton’s What Makes This Book So Great: Re-reading the Classics of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I was likely to buy it anyway (it’s Jo Walton – I like her), but I was hooked when I saw she wrote an essay on Neal Stephenson’s Anathem, which I was moved to write about when I read it, although I think for a totally different reason. Jo Walton’s book is a collection of blog posts she wrote for Tor.com, and the table of contents is the best to-read list (or to-re-read, in many cases) EVER. This may seem stupid, but I’m, like, furiously happy knowing this book exists.
Seriously, I’m a little emotional.