(Picture taken just minutes before I went into shock.)

The 1st Minnesota Variation of the Rules of Acquisition: When visiting legendary genre bookstores, bring smelling salts.

This past week Mary and I visited Minnesota for our delayed 26th Anniversary trip. My sister Abby, her husband Mike, and our niece Madelyn live outside of Minneapolis and we all went to stay in an inn on Lake Superior for part of the week and then Mary and I rejoined them later in the week at their home.

Part of the scheduled itinerary for this adventure was for Mary and I to spend a day going to visit Uncle Hugo’s and DreamHaven Books, two legendary genre stores that are situated within a few miles of each other in Minneapolis. Mary and I took the two hour and fifteen minute journey down from Duluth on Thursday morning, arriving at Uncle Hugo’s around noon.

I had a physical and mental list of books I was looking for (mostly paperbacks) and I had offered to search for used paperbacks for an online friend of mine, the pseudonymous Joachim Boaz of Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations. I’ve been a friend and fan of his for some time. His website is chock full of interesting older science fiction book covers and his reviews of these books leave me in awe of his intelligence and word wizardry. I asked him for a list of books to find before I left for the trip, and armed with both of these lists I entered the store.

My typical M.O. upon entering any bookstore is to head for the hardback section, which I promptly did. After reaching the “C’s”, I said to myself aloud, “I’ve got to get out of here and get to the paperbacks, or I’ll never leave”. My dear wife Mary assisted me as we each started at one end of the paperback section and went through Joachim’s list, all the while I was also scanning the shelves for stuff that might be on my own list, or might simply catch my eye.

Let me stop and say this: Both of these bookstores are OVERWHELMING. There was so much stimuli for a genre book lover like me that I literally felt my anxiety rise (and stay near a fever pitch) because I knew I would run out of time before getting through everything. I even told Mary and one point, with a huge goofy smile on my face, “I’m overwhelmed!”.

In addition to the 19 paperbacks I found off of Joachim’s list (for which I was very excited), I brought the following home for me:

Larry Niven: The Flight of the Horse— I am a big fan of the man’s work, and this Dean Ellis cover made it irresistable.

William C. Dietz: By Blood Alone— I gave Dietz a try for the first time a few years back with his Legion of the Damned prequel, Andromeda’s Fall. I enjoyed all three novels of the trilogy and over the past few years have been snagging used copies of his Legion of the Damned paperbacks whenever I find nearly new copies. Cover art by Bruce Jensen.

Isaac Asimov: Asimov’s Mysteries— Interesting that Asimov actually wrote mysteries, and yet this collection of short stories is a science fiction collection entitled “Asimov’s Mysteries”. That oddity intrigued me, but it was the John Berkey cover and my affection for Asimov’s work that made this the first book I put in my basket.

When I got to the “N’s” I nearly cried, there were so many Andre Norton books that I did not have, and wanted, but I opted to exercise a little self-control, knowing how much I was going to be bringing home.

Andre Norton: Android at Arms— I’m a sucker for android/robot stories, the back cover copy sucked me in, and I liked the cover. No cover credit in the book, and cannot find listing online.

Andre Norton: Postmarked The Stars— I have another copy of this with nice cover, but the cover art by Jeffrey Jones caught my eye.

Andre Norton: Plague Ship— I have the first book in this series, and cannot resist a nice Vincent di Fate cover.

A. Bertram Chandler: To the Galactic Rim— I have talked with a friend about Chandler’s work and was interested in trying out this short story collection. I sometimes like, and sometimes loathe, Baen covers, but this Stephen Hickman cover is fun.

Julie Czerneda: A Thousand Words for Stranger— I recently came across a review for this book series that caused me to put the first novel on my shopping list, and I’m a fan of the work of Luis Royo and have been familiar with Czerneda for some time entirely because of Royo cover art. It will be nice to actually give her a read.

Earlier this year I read the first book of The Man-Kzin Wars series, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve heard from several people who enjoyed the first ten or so volumes every bit as much as the first, and so I’ve been on the lookout for these books. Thanks to my darling wife, who was actually paying attention to how the boxed books sections were organized, I found volumes II through VII. Very excited! These covers are all by Stephen Hickman.

Alan Dean Foster: Mission to Moulokin— I have been a Foster fan since my early pre-adolescent science fiction days, starting with his Star Wars novel, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. I have been wanting to read the Icerigger trilogy and could not find the second book. Until I went to Uncle Hugo’s, that is! Cover art by Michael Herring.

Harry Harrison: Make Room! Make Room!— Despite my Harry Harrison fanaticism, there are several of his novels I have yet to read. The Richard Powers cover on this one made it a must-buy.

Elizabeth Moon: Lunar Activity— It was the Vincent di Fate cover that first caught my eye, but seeing that this collection of short stories had a Paksenarrion story in it sealed the deal. I have read many wonderful things about Moon’s Paksenarrion fantasy stories and I’ve slowly been collecting the books.

Robert A. Heinlein: Podkayne of Mars— I have a habit of collecting multiple covers for books that I enjoy. I think I have more Podkayne of Mars covers than any other books in my collection and I keep finding new ones. This one with art by Carl Lundgren was one I hadn’t seen before Thursday. Astute viewers will might see a Donato Giancola cover for Podkayne of Mars in a basement library picture later on in this post.

Robert A. Heinlein: The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein— It is possible that I have all of these short stories in other Heinlein collections, but the retro cover by Ed Valigursky was one I hadn’t seen previously and I had to bring it home.

Robert A. Heinlein: 6 x H— Another Heinlein short story collection that I had to bring home because the cover caught my eye. This cover is by artist Jack Gaughan.

James White: The Escape Orbit— I’ve only read one book by James White, the first in his Sector General series, but I enjoyed it and suspect I will enjoy the rest. This Wayne Barlowe cover interested me and the story’s description did as well.

James White: Final Diagnosis— The Sector General novels with John Berkey covers are the ones I am trying to collect, and I was thrilled to find this one in such amazing shape.

James White– The Dream Millennium— This is not a Sector General novel, but it too has a John Berkey cover and now it is home with me. I didn’t think it was right to separate these two shelf-mates.

I did eventually get back to the hardback section of the bookstore. Or should I say sections, for there was an enormous used hardback section, a new hardback section, and an autographed hardback section. Wow!

Larry Niven/Edward M. Lerner: Juggler of Worlds— This is the only novel in the Ringworld prequel series written by these two authors that I did not own in hardback, so needless to say I was thrilled to find a really nice copy to bring home. Art by one of my favorites, Stephan Martiniere.

Orson Scott Card: The Call of Earth— I have been slowly accumulating nice hardback copies of Card’s Homecoming series as I want to read them. I now have the first three volumes. The art for these books is by the magnificent Keith Parkinson. It was a real tragedy that he died so early in life.

Over the past year and a half my affection for Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Liaden series, particularly those books featuring Theo Waitley, has grown and grown. I am wanting to have new or like new copies of all the Theo Waitley books in hardback and was so excited to find these new copies of Ghost Ship and Dragon Ship.

I just finished listening to the audio version of Ghost Ship earlier this month and two of my current reads are listening to the audio version of Dragon Ship and reading Necessity’s Child.

Both of these books are autographed by the authors, which made them extra special finds. Cover art for both is by David Mattingly.

Jude Fisher: Sorcery Rising— I first heard of Jude Fisher, pseudonym of author Jane Johnson, because of the extras on the Extended Editions of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films. Jane Johnson is featured in all three in the video chapters talking about author J.R.R. Tolkien, and she also wrote seven Visual Companion books for the six Tolkien film adaptations. When I discovered she had authored a fantasy trilogy, with covers by the incomparable Michael Whelan, I added them to my mental list. This hardcover was in great condition and this is a beautiful Whelan painting.

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I spent nearly three hours in Uncle Hugo’s, and have to give a HUGE shout out to my wife. Mary loves to read, but is not the science fiction and fantasy book fan that I am. She occasionally reads genre fiction, and likes it, but it isn’t her passion like it is mine. She did help me shop for Joachim’s list, and then found a couple of books with art that she recognized from artist Dan Dos Santos. She started reading one and ended up getting hooked on the story (who says cover art doesn’t sell books?), but there was no place to sit but the floor, so the three hours was no doubt much longer for her than it was for me. Especially since it went by in a blink of an eye for me. I love you, dear!

Before moving on to the DreamHaven Books portion of this adventure, let me say a few more words about Uncle Hugo’s. The place is amazing. It has a HUGE section of used SFF paperbacks, used hardbacks, new paperbacks (with multiple books in various series), new hardbacks, autographed hardbacks, art books, old SFF magazines, and more things that I didn’t have time to discover.

Not only does it have a great variety, but every book is shelved not only alphabetically buy author, but each author’s work is shelved alphabetically by book title. Not only the books on the shelves, but the books in boxes are arranged this way too. Piles were neat and orderly. There was decent space between shelves to browse, and the owner couldn’t have been nicer.

I didn’t even make it over to the Uncle Edgar’s side of the store. I cannot wait to go back.

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(Image property of DreamHaven Books)

Next we went on to DreamHaven Books. As we had not eaten lunch, I made a commitment to only spend an hour at the store. Let me interject here that Mary did not complain, was not bored, and did not make me feel any pressure to hurry through either store. She knew how much I was looking forward to this. I think we were there for an hour and a half, so I came close to keeping my word. 🙂

My finds at DreamHaven were:

Robert Silverberg: The Planet Killers— I had so much fun reading the Hunt the Space Witch collection from Planet Stories a few years back that I couldn’t resist grabbing this volume, particularly as it was in such great condition. Cover art by Kieran Yanner.

Robert Silverberg: Nightwings— While looking at the Silverberg section, this gorgeous Michael Parkes cover caught my eye and I quickly added it to the pile. The same image is repeated in full-page black and white between sections of the book.

Patrick Rothfuss: The Name of the Wind— I was late getting on the Rothfuss train, and ended up picking up a paperback copy of this book and could never find a decent hardcover to replace it with. I have A Wise Man’s Fear waiting to be read, which I had signed by the author a few years ago when he was in Kansas City for ConQuesT. I loved Name, and adored the recent novella The Slow Regard of Silent Things, featuring the character Auri. One of my good friends asked me to try to track down a first edition hardcover for him while in Minnesota, and I was thrilled to find first edition (though not first printing) hardcovers for both of us, signed by the author.

Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle: Footfall— If you haven’t guessed it yet, I am a fan of Niven’s work and have enjoyed some of his collaborations as well. I have read good things about this one, it has a Michael Whelan cover, and is a first edition hardcover in great condition.

Larry Niven: A Hole in Space— This is another one I had to pick up because of the Vincent di Fate cover and because it is in great condition.

Alan Dean Foster: Icerigger— Even though I already have a copy of this, with a different cover, Dean Ellis cover grabbed my attention, and the fact that it was also autographed made it too hard to resist. I see books like this, older science fiction paperbacks, personalized by the author, and it makes me wonder about the previous owner. I wonder if the person has passed on and the family has donated or sold their collection, or if the person fell on hard financial times and needed to make some sacrifices, or if they just decided it was time to pare down the collection.

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DreamHaven Books was every bit as wonderful as Uncle Hugo’s, though very different. DreamHaven Books carries new and old comics, a good deal of genre/popular culture memorabilia, and has a lot of autographed items. It is a very neat, orderly, overwhelmingly amazing store. The owner has been to Spectrum Fantastic Art Live in the past and it was fun to talk to him about the Spectrum and ConQuesT shows.

I could have spent many, MANY more hours at both stores. Despite that, I loved the time I spent at each, I have family that lives close by, and I can jump in the car in the future and head back for further adventures. These are special places, I hope people frequent them in person and online to keep them in business.

I bought a few more items at each store, some are gifts and one is a book I’m almost finished with and will talk about in the upcoming review.

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Before leaving for Minnesota, I culled the stacks both upstairs and downstairs, in part to make room and in part to earn some guilt-free money to spend at the stores. I made $100 selling books at Half Price Books, found the $100 my parents had given me for Christmas that I had put in my bedside drawer to save for something special (and had later forgotten) and found $28 worth of change in my bedside drawer, unmentionables drawer, and my pickup. Woo-hoo! I was cash heavy going into the bookstores!

Also before leaving for Minnesota, I cleaned up the basement library area.

Part of the motivation for this was admittedly so that Lauren, the wonderful young lady who was housesitting for us and caring for our dog, could access the DVD’s, books and games without putting her life at risk.

The other reason was to make room for the new-to-me paperbacks I was sure to be bringing home. I look forward to doing some shelving later on this week!

I am back, will be putting up a Wrap Up post for Once Upon a Time soon, and look forward to catching up on all that I’ve missed.