Wormhole Express

So I haven't blogged for a few days because there's been so much going on life -- I'm allowed, right? -- but today, when I felt like blogging, I couldn't think of anything compelling to blog about. How sad.

Instead, my wife and I went out shopping to check out a vintage toy & collectibles store, and ended up checking out several other cool shops we discovered on the same block. One of the shops was a very strange but amazing used book store with just about the narrowest aisles and tightest spaces I have ever wiggled through... There were at least a square mile of old books jammed into about 100 square feet of floor space, loosely organized by subject, stacked on shelves that rose up at least 50 feet and wound around in the oddest, tightest, most disorienting configurations imaginable... There was not a single right angle in the entire store, and every time I thought I was moving away from where my wife was browsing I ended up right back where I started.

Which means that it's enchanted. And/or full of wormholes. Which is what you want in a book store. Which is how I emerged from a wormhole and found myself looking straight at the words UFO's In Space in huge black block letters on the cover of an old paperback.

I blinked and looked closer. Not only was it a UFO book, it was written by famous UFO guy, inspiration for the French UFO researcher character in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and ertswhile cohort of J. Allen Hynek, Dr. Jacques Vallee himself!

Hynek and Vallee, together again!

The full title of the book is "Anatomy of a Phenomenon: UFO's In Space," and despite the misplaced apostrophe, I consider it quite a find, especially for only $3.50 cash. What's it about? I don't know yet, but the cover says "A Compelling Document for the Believer... A Scientific Scrutiny for the Skeptic... A Compendium of Data No One Can Afford to Ignore!!!" And it's got pictures!

Of course, the big thing for me is that Dr. Hynek, the subject of my book, makes guest appearances on pages vii, viii, 77-78 and 99. That may not sound like much in a 200-page book, but when you're a crack researcher like me it's all part of the game. Sometimes you have a read a whole book full of words to get to the handful you want to quote, and there's no sense crying about it. Besides, if I want to score an interview with Dr. Vallee, which I do, I'd better be able to quote him chapter and verse, and possibly even convince him that the book is about him.

In any case, I have high hopes for Dr. Vallee's book, and for a return to that bookstore... Who knows where I might emerge from the next wormhole?