Recently I was in Austin for a conference. While there, I dropped by two Half Price Books (HPB), one of which I’ve not visited in close to a decade. I lived in Austin for 13 years, and learned my way around that city back in the day via bookstores. In the late 1980s/early 1990s the used bookstore scene was far different from what it is today. Back then there were quite a few smallish stores, as well as two (I think) Half Price Books, one located near the University of Texas, although that one moved to a different location at some point.

As a poor college student working a minimum wage part-time job, I occasionally bought cheap SF paperbacks at several of these bookstores when I had the odd extra buck or two. These days, there are mostly (only?) Half Price Books left; this is a chain selling used books mostly at half-off cover price.

Austin’s a far different place these days from when I lived there, although I still know my way around town (mostly). HPB makes exceptions to their “half off publishers prices” for so-called rare or collectible books, although I’ve found a gem or two that somehow slipped through their watchful gaze. Once I found Dan Simmons’ first edition The Song of Kali for $6 (at that location near UT). Another time (in San Antonio) I came across the horror anthology Dark Forces, with over half the contributors’ autographs, for under $9.

I’ve also found a few decently priced books published by Subterranean Press, including Blue World and The Border, both by Robert McCammon. Then again, a handful books out of hundreds of visits isn’t a huge success-rate. Plus, I know I’ve left behind a wanted book or two, think that I already had a copy, then to many a regret finding that was not the case (I’m looking at you, Ray Bradbury). HPB is mostly a place where I pick up random stuff, anyway, though I tend to be picky about what I buy.

This time, I picked up a few goodies:

George Turner’s Drowning Towers, a hardcover first edition from 1987. It’s somewhat rare to find books from that decade in decent condition and not in the “collectible” section. Turner’s a noted Australian author, but never seemed to make it big in the US. The premise seems quite prescient, given all the stories these days about climate change.

Thomas M. Disch’s The Businessman, a hardcover first edition from 1984. In both these cases I have the odd paperback or two by the author, so these are my first hardcover books. Both had protective mylar covers, so someone obviously cared about them; they might even have ended up in the store as part of an estate sale. I’m around a third of the way through the novel, and t’s a weird book, for sure.

Terry Bisson’s Greeting and Other Stories. This is my fifth Bisson book, although I think I’ve only read one of those books, and it was the shortest one. I keep meaning to read the other books, three of which are story collections, but somehow they remain on the TBR list. This one’s a first edition hardback from 2005, signed by the author. Listed at $40, then marked down to $20, I had to remind the salesperson of the sticker price since it rang up at the higher, previous price.

Bisson recently died, so he won’t be signing any more books, not that a signature matters too much to me, unless it happened in my presence. I bought this book not for the signature, but because I had some of his other books, and really do intend to read them some day. This copy may have passed through several hands, as the spine of the mylar cover bore two different stickers, likely indicating this was a signed book displayed in another bookstore; or, maybe the previous owner marked signed books in some visible way. Something that will remain a mystery.

Robert Silverberg’s The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party. Another 1980s book, this one from 1984. A first edition hardback and in quite a decent condition. I have a few Silverberg paperbacks, plus one expensive limited edition copy of Dying Inside from Centipede Press, although I can never find the one book that I’m looking for.

I’m a sucker for hardback SF/horror books from the 1980s (as long they are in good condition), and this collection of short stories looked quite tempting. It’s published by Arbor House, which brought out some great books in the 1980s, so that’s a bonus.

Dan Simmons’ The Fifth Heart. This is one of only two Simmons mass-market published books that I lacked. A few months ago I came close to owning the other one, but the person selling it had sold it right before I placed my order. Published in 2015, and thus Simmons’ (to date) last novel, The Fifth Heart is a book that I missed in book stores when it first was published. Well, maybe I avoided it, for I thought a book pairing the fictional Sherlock Holmes with the real Henry James sounded totally bonkers. I’d also been disappointed by his other “hidden” history book about Charles Dickers and Wilkie Collins, Drood. So far, I’m struggling to find my way through the book, but am still trying to finish reading it. Simmons wrote great SF, horror, and mystery books, but I’m torn about these hidden history stories. The Terror was so-so, and The Abominable had some great moments, but they pale in comparison to Hyperion and Carrion Comfort.

I’m not sure if the print run for The Fifth Heart was low on purpose, or whether many copies were pulped, but I hardly never see copies available for sale anywhere. Since this copy was in decent shape and at less than half cover price (sorry, Mr. Simmons), I thought, “why not?”

I keep looking for Omega Canyon, a novel he announced a few years ago, but still remains unpublished as well as the only other previously published book that I don’t own. Over the years I have I tried to buy all of Simmons other books. He’s a writer I met a long time ago at a book signing at Adventures in Crime and Space in Austin, TX, and, he’s a damn fine writer. It’s too bad he’s not published anything since 2015, but I understand (although I could be wrong) that there might be some health issues at play.

I came close to owning a hardback of Simmons’ Hyperion back in the day, but back then I so rarely could afford a hardcover book, and passed up the opportunity. These days you can’t get one for less than $500. It would go so well next to my hardcover copy of The Fall of Hyperion…

Along with the books mentioned above, I also picked up a pair of James Crumley novels, an early paperback in the Wild Cards series, a paperback copy of Seeklight, the first novel from K. W. Jeter, a trade paperback of Silverberg’s Tales of Majipoor, and three others that will remain nameless as they were more or less impulse buys of lesser note.

Maybe this isn’t the way to acquire books—after all, it seems quite random. But, I still prefer to see and touch books before I buy them, rather than take the chance on online purchases. So it goes, for the haphazard collector…