I'm keeping a running total of money saved:

Rude Britannia: £5
Toy Tales: £5.50
Familiar Views: £2.75

Total: £13.25

Or, I've got an Arts Fund membership, and I'm not afraid to use it. (Side note - their webpage takes a lot of navigating to get to the point where it actually mentions prices: Join Us, then Join Now, then the form. Even then, I don ( Read more... )

Next, sf films from the 1970s.

I can see this being cut down. My count is 136.

( Be afraid. Be very afraid. )

Okay, I've gone through the Clute/Nicholls encyclopedia and extracted novels and collections which seem significant or representative or interesting in relation to the 1970s. I've merged this with the Awards listing. (I also have a list of short fiction and will compile a list of films)

( Roughly 250 books )

Okay, here's a provisional reading list - based on awards given in the 1970s or for award-winning books published in the 1970s. (And yes, I also have a listing of short fiction with the same criteria.) Of course, there's a list to be made of books (etc) which didn't win awards but are significant. But not today. And I'm only up to M on the films ( Read more... )

Of course, I need to be careful, if people are listening in. I will not give away all my secrets as I want there to be some surprises in any article or book that comes from this, but I'll continue to periodically ( think aloud )

An interesting synchronicity:

( Geoff Ryman on the male dominated Hugo shortlist )

'SF has not been much fun of late. All forms of pop culture go through doldrums; they catch cold when society sneezes. If SF in the late Seventies was confused, self-involved, and stale, it was scarcely a cause for wonder ( Read more... )