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Off topic
Thanks to my new kindle, I was re-reading Inherit the Stars by James P. Hogan, which is available for free at Baen. I was especially fond of this book when I was a teenager, for the crisp image of how the scientific thinking works towards the finding of solutions to apparently impossible problems.
Well, obviously a lot of things have changed since 1977, oneself for a start. So I do not find the book so good as when I was 14, but it can be still read.
The real good thing that I noticed is that the thing that most surprise you reading it is not the fact that URSS is still there, that we should have personal jets available for renting at popular prices, or that the concept of personal computer is at least strange. No, the real things that makes the book sound dated is the fact that the scientists and the bosses are practically all male, and that all of them keep smoking as hell… even in the moon-to-jupiter starship.
The fact that this surprised me so much say a lot on how and much things are changing. This is, I think, a good news.
Funny thing … I got that book in my hands right here (Hong Kong) and now (Sept. 26, 2012)and, just moved by curiosity, I searched the net for the original title “Inherit the Stars” …and I found this place with the book cover just set in front of me…an Urania book no. 739 published in Italy on 1.1.1978 … price: Lire 700 (yeah, the old Lire Italiane, gone since long) …by the way, I got almost 1000 Uranias on my bookshelves…call me an old collector
🙂 nice. Still a book worth reading.
Mia madre aveva una collezione quasi infinita, ricordo Urania in casa da quando ho memoria (sono del 64). Purtroppo, la collezione se ne è andata piano piano nei vari traslochi e poi definitivamente con lei.
Grazie per il messaggio, è un piacere sapere di aver fatto nascere un sorriso.