NPQiYBM/Asimov

[cahn]

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Anyone who does not know that this quotation is from Isaac Asimov should go and read a book of his in penance. I've been rereading a bunch of his stuff lately, mostly because I had a cold and was not feeling up to anything less readable, and whatever else you might say about him Asimov is very easy to read.

I had never actually read his robot mystery novels before (though I've read every single one of the robot stories), and the first two are really quite good (in, of course, a Golden Age sort of way-- don't expect psychodrama), though I figured out the killer in the first book after the first third of the book. I have always loved the Black Widower mystery short stories (joyce, you might like these -- they are short and sweet and usually pretty upbeat), though they vary widely in quality. I love them honestly for the afterwords more than anything else. Which realization started me on reading his autobiography (I, Asimov, though there are three others), which is just really charming. Asimov sounds like he was a delightful person, and I am annoyed that he left us after only 300 (!) books.

Off to Yosemite for this weekend, yay! hope the weather is nice *crosses fingers*

Comments

[julianyap.livejournal.com]

Actually, more like 500. Back in high school till just after college I did my level best to collect all the Asimov I could. I ended up with all his fiction (over 100 books) and a lot of non-fiction and tapped out at about 170.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Ah, I was misled by the appearance of "Opus 300" in his book collection. But that was back in 1984!

I think I might have to expand our Asimov collection now, although I am unfortunately a little old for some of the science nonfiction.