American Science Fiction: Five Classic Novels 1956-1958

As happens more often than I care to admit, I went out shopping today for gifts only to find something I just had to purchase for myself: this extremely handsome volume of five classic science fiction novels from The Library of America. The included novels are Robert Heinlein's Double Star, The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, A Case of Conscience by James Blush, Who? by Algis Budrys and Fritz Leiber's The Big Time.

I have about a dozen Library of America collections across a variety of genres, but they're all uniformly gorgeous. Most volumes sport fairly simple covers, but some of their newer offerings, such as this one, feature beautiful genre-appropriate artwork and graphic design. Even though I already own two of the novels in this five-book collection, I just had to have this.

UPDATE: I was reading the CBC news website and realized that I was in the store while this was going on - the Make-A-Wish Foundation made it possible for a 13 year old with thyroid cancer to enjoy a shopping spree at Chapters. There was a moment where I wondered idly why there was such a commotion in the next aisle, but otherwise I was completely unaware that there was a news story being filmed. When I'm browsing for books my attention is pretty focussed!I hope the girl featured in the story enjoys a full recovery.