Laurel KrahnOMG! OMG! OMG! I just held this book in my hands!
I showed it to my husband: “that is not a little book, it is big.”
Indeed.
(There is a story behind this . . . ) 🧵 (1/x)
You might want to take a look at this article if you haven’t yet: “The 25th Anniversary Edition of John Crowley’s Little, Big Was Almost Two Decades in the Making” by Molly Templeton on Tor.com:
Little, Big by John Crowley is one of my favorite books.
I read it, after hearing it recommended at Fourth Street Fantasy Convention IIRC, in the very cozy guest bedroom of my Grandma & Grandpa Olson’s house in Mitchell, South Dakota. Was, at that point, my favorite place in the world (yes, really).
The experience of reading that particular book in that particular place is a vivid sense memory for me (& I don’t have many of those).
Years later, there was talk of a fancy 25th anniversary edition of the book. I was intrigued! They offered pre-orders. The book was not going to be cheap (as it would be large & illustrated).
They offered a significant discount if you ordered multiple copies. I did not need multiple copies! But a bunch of us got to talking on Livejournal (IIRC) and decided to go in on an order.
Over the years, I honestly forgot where we had left this. Had I committed to this? Had I paid?
Life happened and I really didn’t keep much track of what happened with the book. Occasionally I’d see an update. Finally sounded like it might happen.
I thought “hmm, I should probably figure out if I actually ordered this directly or with friends.”
Time passes. And then I see a tweet from @Womzilla:
(And I reply enthusiastically and at about that same time get a message from him on Discord: “Hey, I have your copy of the Deluxe *Little, Big*, only 17 years behind schedule!” )
Fortunately he keeps track of things and knew I still owed him money and fortunately I’d just received a bit of money from a kind friend and we sorted out payment and shipping and all of that.
And I worried a bit about the blizzard causing issues, but the book arrived in fine shape today. <3
Will have to give the book a proper look after lunch. (So excited!)
I fully intended to use the money someone sent me via the Tip Jar on https://linktr.ee/LaurelKrahn for crucial things like food but I think most folks who like me or my nonsense enough to throw a little $ my way understand it is good to have money for other important things like books. ❤️
(Would eat ramen for a week to afford this book, obviously.)
Used the Wayback Machine on the LittleBig25 site and gosh, yes, I guess a 40% discount if you preorder 5 or more copies would explain why some of us decided to go in together on an order.
Patrick LaForge
oliver59@windowseat A long time ago. Time to remember!!
Dr. Young-Leslie 🇨🇦@windowseat one of my all-time favourite stories. That, and Engine Summer, are imho, John Crowley's masterworks.
Little, Big would make a great Netflix series. I'm continually surprised that Engine Summer hasn't been made into a movie.
Arnfinn Pettersen
Michele Stuart@windowseat Oh, I loved that book so much! This edition looks amazing.
greatquux@windowseat definitely a great book. I’d wanted to read it for years but only got around to it when I saw it was one of the “most abandoned “ books on goodreads. It wasn’t life changing or anything but I never considered putting it down that’s for sure! I love big books.
@greatquux Huh. Interesting that it is a “most abandoned” book, though I suppose not surprising given when I first heard about it there were quite a few people saying they never could get into it. (But the other people were so enthusiastic, I had to check it out. Can tell it is definitely not for everyone.)
@windowseat this is the post i was referencing: https://gwern.net/goodreads
I'm totally going to read as many abandoned ones as I can, and I've already read some!
I'm totally going to read as many abandoned ones as I can, and I've already read some!
Lime Green Gnome
susanlt@windowseat @neilhimself My kids bought me this for my birthday and now it is, what, 15 years later? Can't wait to reread.
Molly Segal Rookwood@windowseat This was the first book my husband ever recommended to me, and it was very much an "I need you to read this book because it is extremely important to me" sort of recommendation. I loved it as much as he did, and the relationship was allowed to continue!
Arnold W. Rivas@windowseat Looks exciting 😀