If you haven’t read Delany’s short fiction, this is the place to start. And by then, I was re-reading the entire collection because, as I said, I’d forgotten just how good this collection is. But then, I remembered “Driftglass” and had to read that. Interestingly, as I read “Time…” I realized that wasn’t the story I was remembering I was recalling “Aye, and Gomorrah”. Then, recently, something reminded me of “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones” and I picked up this volume to re-read it. But, eventually, it fell somewhere in the library and I got involved in reading other things. I’m guessing I read this first while in high school, and I recall revisiting it a number of times. I’d forgotten how great this collection is. And, after my two weeks were up, I reported it lost. In fact, I was the only person to check it out in two years, and only one other person had checked it out before me. So I opened the cover and checked the list in the back - this was before bar codes and computer tracking, in the dark ages - and the list had no dates stamped in it since I'd checked it out last. I'd already hunted down other Delany books by then, but I had to have this one. I needed to be able to get back into that world, all those worlds, all those places that hinted at things I wanted, needed, couldn't get at 17 years old living in a small town in Florida.
I'd combed my favorite used and new stores without finding a copy, but I knew I had to have that book. I returned to that spot in the library, that particular shelf, and that book. And, in time, I returned it to the library.Ĭut to a few months later, just before the end of the school year. I read the book in a few days, then reread it. I fell right into the first story, sensing a level of experiences and ideas new to me, so new they were guaranteed to take me out of my own life for a while. I remember that the cover caught my attention. This book lived in a particular set of shelves in the middle of my school's "media center". 1982, junior year of high school, my SF and fantasy reading expanding out in desperation from the serious traumas of my life.
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