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From: bill@sigma.UUCP (Bill Swan)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Way Station....
Message-ID: <565@sigma.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Dec-85 15:32:42 EST
Article-I.D.: sigma.565
Posted: Mon Dec 16 15:32:42 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Dec-85 09:08:19 EST
References: <710@caip.RUTGERS.EDU>
Reply-To: bill@sigma.UUCP (William Swan)
Organization: Summation Inc, Woodinville WA
Lines: 27

In article <710@caip.RUTGERS.EDU> postmaster@CSNET-SH.ARPA writes:
>[...]an unusual situation regarding the book "Way Station" by Clifford Simak
>in the book club edition.  Specifically, this person's spouse who
>normally had non-SF tastes in their reading picked up this book and
>could not put it down until they had finished.
>[...]
>Now I recall this book.  I thought it wasn't bad, but it also wasn't
>spectacular.  [...]
>Does anyone have any explanation for this?

It depends heavily on your tastes (plural intentional) in literature. While
Simak's older books, like _Way Station_ treat certain topics (such as alien
beings) in ways that look clumsy to readers of the current styles of science 
fiction, there is an element to his writing in those books that I really enjoy.

Sad to say, I have not found quite the same "charm" in his later writings,
but the earlier books hold a special place in my permanent collection (if 
quantity counts, my bookshelves and floors support only some 500 books, but I
have given away well over a thousand in the past two decades).

I see nothing contradictory in seeing a person  who has been stereotyped as to
their choice of reading finding enjoyment in a different writing. My wife, who
has a Master's in French Literature is currently enjoying Le Guin's
_Left Hand of Darkness_.

-- 
William Swan  {ihnp4,decvax,allegra,...}!uw-beaver!tikal!sigma!bill