I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land

I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land is a special edition hardcover novella from Connie Willis published by Subterranean Press.

I've been a fan of the author for decades, and this piece, though only 88 pages, shines with her humor, sharp wit, and style.

I was always the Luddite who swore I'd never own an e-book reader.  I adore libraries full of old books.  When my university medical library was moving to new digs, I rehomed literally hundreds of the deaccessioned books and felt badly that there were, sadly, thousands more which I couldn't adopt. I now own several ebook readers (a pack of Kindles and a Kobo for bathtime reading), but I still love everything about books from the smell to the tactile joy and solidity of sitting down with a book.

Neil Gaiman says it so much better than I can (that's why he's a world famous author and I'm a professional labrat bionerd):

I do not believe that all books will or should migrate onto screens: as Douglas Adams once pointed out to me, more than 20 years before the Kindle turned up, a physical book is like a shark. Sharks are old: there were sharks in the ocean before the dinosaurs. And the reason there are still sharks around is that sharks are better at being sharks than anything else is. Physical books are tough, hard to destroy, bath-resistant, solar-operated, feel good in your hand: they are good at being books, and there will always be a place for them.

 The entire essay is available here.

Beautiful dust jacket art by Jon Foster.

I received an early e-ARC of this book and while I did find an error (Great Fire of London was in 1666, not 1665; it's pretty obviously a typo), I assume it'll be corrected before release.

Love the author, enjoyed the novella very much.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.