RIP, Arthur C. Clarke

There will be tributes and obituaries throughout cyberspace, I'm sure. Shoot, the obits have been ready for some time. My tribute is small in comparison, but heartfelt. I discovered Arthur C. Clarke when I was in high school. My favorite room in the entire school was the library. Once I had a delusional idea to read every book. That concept was quickly abandoned, but the attempt did cause me to peruse the fiction section and I quickly found an old collection of short stories title The Nine Billion Names of God. The title story is available online here. That story stuck with me. Thinking about it gives me shivers today. That one story and the other stories in the book started me off on years of wonderful reading.

Clarke, Bradbury, Asimov, and Heinlein were my friends throughout my teen years and early 20s. I haven't been ready sci fi lately, but I still remember those wonderful hours spent curled up with the books that took me to other worlds and other dimensions. I remember the librarian who was sure that I couldn't possibly read the Clarke book that I checked out the day before we had to turn in all books for the end of the year (I finished and had a reasonable night's sleep).

Thank you for years of memories and adventures.