Hello everyone
My default setting is hoarder who developed into a collector. I suspect we all started that way. I mean, it starts innocently enough and then develops because you want anything associated with a particular subject until you start realising not all is gold and a lot just junk. That develops a form of taste and also knowledge at what you are collecting than just hoarding everything,
Pre-Internet, looking for things that took our interest was a bit, well mostly, hit and miss. Visit a town or city, you can bet you’d look in any bookshop on the off-chance a new or even a rare book, not necessarily expensive, might pop up. Our media rarely got reviews in the national press, so looking for books was more or less an exploration unless you depended solely on the library. I did until after the age of eleven and the realisation my local library didn’t have any new ‘modern’ SF books.
I also learnt, when young, that many books didn’t necessarily appear in all bookshops and, in latter years, often got returned to the warehouses if not sold. That’s largely how I missed a lot of books, not having the money to buy when I first saw one. I had a list of books, some often without knowing the titles, to look out for and relied on instinct and off-chance. Much of my list was in my head. I knew what it was when I saw it again. These days, I have a list but with so many bought and needed to be read, I hold back until I need to go after them or they pop up at a decent price.
The Internet changed all of that. Even a brief description could identify some of the books I missed and try to track down. These days, if its out there, I can usually find it. Experience rules. If the price is too expensive, I just wait until a cheaper copy is available unless I felt by waiting the price would go up not down. Some publishers don’t produce a lot of some books and, if there is a short run, you’ve got to weigh up the odds of how often a book will appear on the market as well as cost. Do that enough, you get a nose for when to buy or wait. My exploration jungle being world-wide, usually short of the USA because of its really expensive overseas rates, is much wider there days but the odds of getting the books I need to read is much, much higher.
The important thing is the Internet has made collecting and reading a lot easier. I’ve never been that armoured by digital books. I like the feel of a book in my hands. With digital, it is also easy to forget how many books you have and looks, frankly, very minimalist. I like my shelves full. On the other hand, having a pile of unread books gives you something to work your way through even if I continually add to it.
This applies to a lot of my various collections. The instinct is to buy before the price goes up and read, watch or listen to at a more convenient time. At that point, I then add them to my databases because it means I’ve acknowledged their existence into my various collections. If I just entered them, it might mean I would avoid duplication but miss the experience of them. I tend to regard my collections as a working one. You’ve seen me turn a lot of them into reviews in the recent post-Covid desert of SF books. The only time I’ve become a little unstuck is buying some really expensive sealed first-hand books and hesitating opening them. Not because I’m thinking that would drop in value once the wrapping is removed but more along the lines of them suddenly become sacred. Will I ever read them? When I work my way to them I guess but at least I have a copy. Everything in their time and place. I know I have them before the price or availability becomes questionable. But that’s part of being a hoarder or collector. There is a need to get them.
The thing is are collectors dying out? The new generations tend to rely on the Internet for information than a desire to develop a taste of exploration of old ideas, let alone new ideas, in all kinds of forms and build up collections of their interest. If its out there, why bother than knowing its there? The new generations don’t appear to be getting the excitement of collecting. Whether they feel that way if they couldn’t get it, who knows? It could, of course, be a combination of too much to do and not enough money and storage space, although then it becomes ingenuity in how to accomplish them on a budget.
As I said, in many respects, my collections are working ones. I might have a good memory but if I have to look something up then there are times where the Internet isn’t much good or, as commonly known, not particularly accurate or from human sources. Nothing beats looking at the real thing.
Some items in my collections have real stories behind them or knowledge about them. Good for the memory as well. There’s also some satisfaction looking something up on the Net and then knowing I actually have the real item to double check and know when its wrong. We all know the Net isn’t perfect in a lot of things and shouldn’t be taken as gospel. Human writers can also make mistakes that perpetuate because no one has bothered to check something only rely on other people’s accounts to whatever agenda or dislikes they have. When I was at work, I was tasked to use a somewhat obscure mathematical formula for a computer program but I needed to see the formula in use. Found a book, tried the example and found it wrong. A letter to the publisher and from them to the author who came back blushing that I was right. You can’t do that without knowing what you’re doing and not afraid to question anything you read.
One attraction of owning any collection is it looks prettier than numbers in a bank account. If money is needed or loss of interest, there’s always the possibility of selling at a higher price or, assuming you have duplicates, just selling or trading them. Oddly, I’ve never considered that. It might make my house rather full, but I have the satisfaction of having read, watched or listened to most of it. How many can say that?
Even so, are collectors going to become extinct? Not with us older types, but the generations to come. I hope not, but seeing how the new folk are losing interest in television, what else are they likely to lose interest in? Unlike when I was young, there was a lot less choice and easier to collect or start collecting. If you wanted to collect Judge Dredd, you would need a warehouse to hold all the issues. I mean, that’s 49 years worth, assuming you can track them all down! Of course, there are some that make it easy. With both Marvel and DC having finite runs of their various universes and collected volumes, it does make things easier now to have a limited collection of some of them. From there, it can be anything else. Of course, we’re genre. Picking SF, horror or fantasy authors or artists gives a limited number of books or films or TV series you can become specialised. As I get older, I find I pay more attention to bibliographies in case there’s something I might have missed. Then it becomes a challenge to locate something that has piqued my interest. As long as that keeps up, my collections will always grow.
If you want to demonstrate taste, go after choice items that you think deserve your attention. Anything too general and most of any fanbase will have them. ‘Rare’ is a lot harder to define. Anything over 50 years old is going to be noted as such regardless of the quality. Then it becomes lodged under ‘availability’.
As that recent seller of his forgotten Pokémon card collection recently discovered. Never dump anything. It might become worth a lot of money one day. But then, did you originally collect anything with its worth when young? The value is in what it means to you far more than to anyone else.
Thank you, take care, good night and are you getting the itch to collect?
Geoff Willmetts
editor: www.SFCrowsnest.info
A Zen thought: To collect is to breath.
What Qualities Does A Geek Have: To question, doesn’t mean everyone has the answers.
The Reveal: I don’t know how it reflects in other parts of the world, but if you apply the adverts scenarios, humans don’t appear to have hobbies. Now isn’t that scary?
Observation: Just in case you think I’m always having a downer on ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, if you look at the landscape photos in the opening sequence, they are static but brought to life by the music. Unique for its time although it does show how the eye looks over any image.
Observation: The best way to watch the film ‘Prometheus’ is treat the crew as incompetents in an unfamiliar territory making the wrong decisions, especially over contamination. In that respect, only Vickers had a firm grasp of what to do.
Observation: For those with an artistic need with a touch of anatomy, let’s look at the vampire head. We all have an overhang. That is the upper jaw sticks out over the lower jaw. That is why when people show clenched teeth it looks like a grimace. However, the overhang would also mean that a vampire’s fangs would stick out more which would make it easier for them to bite.
Computer Observation: For those who use the Open-Shell, https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu , so you have the better Windows 7 menu option for Windows 11, they now have a new upgrade which came out in May 2026. My back-up computer’s Open-Shell directed me to it and had to find it on my laptop. The zip is called OpenShellSetup_4_4_198.exe . The biggest thing I’ve found about it is that it has reduced the time it comes up on the screen. The time it took to download suggests a lot of people are downloading so be patient.
Feeling Stressed: The world is still here…just.
Submissions:-
If you think having free books to review isn’t enough, how about reading them months ahead of everyone? I mean real months. Beats a time machine. I’m heavy into recruiting right, so pay attention to some of the links below and see what makes my head ticks and how I’d correct any mistakes.
In case you’re wondering why this submissions detail isn’t kept with every editorial, its because Google complained there were too many, so I move it along with every editorial.
I did think that having a lot of text about submitting material to SFCrowsnest would attract those with a compulsion to read and understand things the geek way. The main problem with the Internet is that it tends to encourage less reading, so time to take a different approach. The original notes will be left on July2009 editorial although the links aren’t likely to work.
With your cover email, tell me something about yourself so I don’t work in a vacuum. The boss in the tower, also called Stephen Hunt, describes me as a ‘Dutch Uncle’ in that I’m good with advice and can explain when I see something that is wrong. Egos should be left at the door as I’m only interested in your talent and how to improve it.
Reviews:-
I always have a clarion call for new reviewers and if you have the yen to learn, you’ll quickly get the ropes if you’re never done it before but you must show me a sample, especially if you can follow my guidelines. We can usually get paper-based books in the UK but if you live abroad, then you might have to stick with ebooks. If you’ve picked a book we haven’t reviewed, then it stands a better chance of being used so use the SFC search engine to see first but I need to see how you would write for us.
The obvious qualification is a desire to read regularly and like to tell others about the book without giving away too many spoilers. The benefit is access to free books for the price of a review.
I want to give you the opportunity to get things right so look up the Review Guidelines link: https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/so-you-want-to-write-reviews-for-sfcrowsnest-what-you-need-to-know-by-geoff-willmetts/
Fiction:-
Although we can’t pay for submissions, what we do make up for is exposure. Only the Sci-Fi Channel gets more hits than us so it’s worthwhile getting us on your writer’s CV. Please avoid samplings from book’s you might be writing or have had in print elsewhere as I do check. New original work is best and whether I accept or reject, you will be told of any problems I see so you look your best and a grammar check that is equal to the pro-world. Even the boss finds me scarily accurate.
Flash or One-Page Fiction:-
Speaks for itself. The shortest fiction possible is also the toughest to write as no word must be wasted.
Link here for details: https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/one-page-stories-or-flash-fiction-submissions-instructions-by-gf-willmetts/
Short Stories:-
The definition of a short story is anything up to 30 pages and then it becomes a novella. Bear in mind you want other people to read it on-line, stay somewhere between 5-20 pages. At least digitally, you don’t have to go double-line as HTML will do that automatically but think about being concise. If you want to send an attachment with these, then ask first and send as a TXT file as it removes most tetchy virus codes.
Look up the Short Stories Link by linking here: https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/so-you-really-want-to-write-an-sf-story-an-update-by-gf-willmetts/
Finally:-
The worse problem I see any samples is poor grammar. Although I don’t want you to think I seek perfection, the less work I have to do, the easier it is to focus on other problems you might have. It will also serve you in good stead if you ever approach paper-based publishers because they will send back any bad grammar samples because it’s not worth their time.
Good grammar is the tool of any writer. Don’t just depend on what you remember doing at school. There are plenty of decent grammar books out there, so remind yourself of the rules. If you think there are far too many to remember, get the major ones right before moving to the next so it becomes second nature.
This link, www.sfcrowsnest.info/the-guide-to-better-grammar-from-the-harrowed-hand-of-gf-willmetts/ will show you the common problems.
To submit, use our email address by joining the spaces as shown here: letters @ SFcrowsnest.info and use the subject matter as to what you’re submitting.
If you have any pastimes that can be used to pass the time in captivity, let me know and we’ll see if it can be turned into an article.
Comments directly to reviews should still work as before.
Good luck
Geoff
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