This has been a very busy week, between Target Teach on Monday, grading it on Tuesday, and somehow doing the grades for my classes in spite of hordes of students who have been squatting in the Math Lab lately. But most of them are so delightful that I do not mind them being there at all (especially since these joyous times are soon to end....).

I have always felt that a life without passion is a dull life, but at times it amazes me how few people have something to feel passionate about. It can range from sports (playing or viewing) to travel, from joining organizations to even watching television. Anybody who knows me realizes that my passion is books, primarily reading them, but also writing them. And the vast majority of the books I read are science fiction (followed distantly by historical fiction, historical nonfiction and travel writing). While I have a broad range of interest in various types (although not all types) of science fiction, some authors have somehow gotten lost in the cracks of my reading.

So it thrills me to discover or re-discover new works that are just as exciting to me now as those I read during my “Golden Age” of 14, when I first discovered science fiction magazines and books. It is very difficult for me not to buy dozens of sf books each year–along with another dozen non-sf books–but that effort alone keeps me motivated to keep reading those I have so that I can buy more more more...

Imagine what an extraordinary effort it is for me right now to resist an amazing discount being offered by one publisher to selected buyers. :)