{"id":2229,"date":"2013-06-12T16:23:04","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T20:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/?p=2229"},"modified":"2013-08-14T12:49:51","modified_gmt":"2013-08-14T16:49:51","slug":"three-reasons-why-i-love-this-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/?p=2229","title":{"rendered":"Three Reasons Why I Love This Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

I found this copy of Envoy to New Worlds<\/em> by Keith Laumer at a used bookstore. Though I haven\u2019t read it, I love this book. Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n

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1. The Cover<\/strong>
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Look at this! <\/p>\n

Look at it again because you need to really take a moment to appreciate what\u2019s happening in this work of art. Just as you wouldn\u2019t gulp a fine wine, you shouldn\u2019t just glance at this book cover. <\/p>\n

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Here is a man dressed like future-Dracula and sporting an amazing space blaster and cape! He has a jeweled collar and another fancy gem\/award on his sport coat! And what\u2019s that lurking in his cape? Monsters! <\/p>\n

Oh, and there\u2019s a spaceship in the background. <\/p>\n

Put a ticket to Jurassic Park in his hand and this would be the most perfect work of art of them all. <\/p>\n

Plus, his face is so boring and his haircut so wonderfully senatorial that I assume he\u2019s a future-Dracula by night and a 9th grade social studies teacher by day! Maybe the award on his chest is for Teacher of the Year?<\/p>\n

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But wait…there\u2019s more. <\/p>\n

2. The cigarette ad <\/strong>
\nIf the copyright date is to be trusted, this was published in 1963, and obviously in the 1960s it wasn\u2019t a big deal to put a full-color, full-page glossy cigarette ad in the middle of a sci-fi book that\u2019s clearly aimed at the younger crowd. <\/p>\n

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Go ahead and check your copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban<\/em>. You won\u2019t finish that book with a strong thirst for tarry smoke. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a smoker. I\u2019m not a fan of cigarettes. But this ad makes me happy because it\u2019s so very, very stupid. Sadly, while photographing the ad, it ripped out of the book’s binding…possibly because it didn’t want to be shown to the world. <\/p>\n

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3. The price<\/strong>
\nI got this book for $2. I just read the first chapter and judging by the words alone, it\u2019s not a very good book, so I probably will never finish it. Sadly, no words could possibly live up to this cover. <\/p>\n

That said, I got my two bucks worth. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll keep this book in my car in case I\u2019m ever trapped and want something to read. Or maybe I\u2019ll just frame the cover and sell it to the museum for a thousand dollars. <\/p>\n

For those who are interested in the actual story of the book, here\u2019s the synopsis from GoodReads.com<\/a> (which shows a much less stellar cover):<\/p>\n

The adventures of CDC (Corps Diplomatique Terra) diplomat Jame Retief loom large in six highly classified missions where brain and brawn save land and lives despite red-tape bound superiors amid conspiracy and conflct across alien planets – guaranteed astounding, amazing, startling, galactic, weird, and thrillingly wonderful.
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Eh…whatever. Let\u2019s all look at the cover again!!!!<\/p>\n

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