This morning I picked out an old science fiction novel, Contact by Carl Sagan, off the book shelf. I wanted to show my husband and have a laugh, because that was one of the pseudonyms used in the Back to the Future computer game. When I flipped open the front cover I noticed an ink stamp reminding me of where I bought the book.
When I was in my mid teens my Dad discovered a nondescript doorway at the back of a laundromat, which was run by a Chinese couple [I think]. There nothing special about this doorway, but it was a portal to a special place. It was a book exchange for second hand books.
When Dad took me to this hidden shop I was over the moon to discover all these science fiction on sale for as little as two dollars. It was the perfect place, as I had already exhausted my school library Star Trek collection.
I bought The Last Starfighter because I watched the film like a million times when I was a kid. I also bought Carl Sagan's Contact since I had enjoyed the Jodie Foster film adaptation so much. I know I bought a Next Generation novel but it was tragically ruined in a storage mishap several years ago.
