Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Read What They Read

God bless this modern age of ours.  The last few posts here have been railing about how they just don't make them like they used to, and it turns out that we can still read the Narrative-free tales of yesterday without combing the used book sales and flea markets of today.  An outfit over at the Pulp Magazines Project has a number of old adventure magazines scanned and ready for download.  It also includes a host of links to other archives where you can grab a copy and read it for yourself.
 
Cirsova has been doing a bang up job writing short reviews of one in particular, Planet Stories.  We'll leave the fantasy and sci-fi market to guys like he and Jeffro.
 
My first foray into short reviews of the pulps - tune in next post - will be "Two on Trinity," from the February 1911 issue of "Adventure".  Before we get into that, how's this for an odd bit of synchronicity?  A month ago an aunt of mine recommended a book, Prestor John, by John Buchan.  The "Coming Next Month" blurb for this magazine announces the first installment of that series which was presumably later published as a novel.  The full novel sits on my Google Drive waiting for a read.
 
That's a great sign.  Proof positive that these works are still floating about, being read and enjoyed more than a hundred years later.  Granted, there's going to be a lot of wheat in the chaff, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth looking.  After all, half the fun is the thrill of the hunt.
 
This is going to be even more fun than expected.