Monday, July 25, 2011

I Might Be Tired

You know, folks, I might actually be tired of checking out self-published UFO books from the University of Mississippi library. Today I got one with a plastic spiral binding like a regional cookbook might have, and another one in a white three-ring loose-leaf binder such as kids carried to school in 1979. That's a "book" I checked out of the library! Photocopied pages - some letters and newspaper clippings mixed in. But somehow I didn't feel happy. I also got three more publications from the Saucerian Books company of Clarksburg, West Virginia, including FLYING SAUCERS ARE WATCHING YOU by John C. Sherwood. Saucerian Books look practically professional compared to those others! I don't know what kind of deal Saucerian Books had going with the library - evidently it was pretty amazing, because the library is admirably stocked with a panoply of Saucerian Books. But in a telling sign of my malaise, I abandoned at least three or four other Saucerian Books publications on the study table today, including one (I think it was called SAUCER WARNING) with a full-page illustration of a space monster resembling a large, threatening pickle. My heart wasn't in it. I did get a small spark from the romantically titled paperback THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND SAUCERS, from Understanding Publishing Co. of El Monte, California. Like all the books I enjoy most, it has no blurbs or description on the back. I've only read the introduction so far, which is done in that certain style I find so much better than anything I could ever write, and often try to emulate: "Flying Saucers is a strange subject. For a long time it was treated as though it were immoral. Most people refrained from discussing it in public. Those who did were often considered brave, radical or foolish."