The recent re-issue of Dying Inside, Robert Silverberg's classic sf novel from the early 1970s, and the subsequent excellent reviews it started to garner, prompted me to check my bookshelves to see if I had a copy. I did, and as soon as I dragged it off the shelf I realised I knew next to nothing about it.
The edition I have is a Ballantine Books paperback from October 1973. It's a US edition with a cover price of $1.25, a slight crack in the spine, and a minor 1cm by 1cm water stain (coffee?) on the first four or five pages. And I have no idea of when or where I bought it.
Generally such US editions wouldn't come into my hands unless I had bought them directly from the States (which I did a bit of in the 1970s) or from a second-hand bookstore. Paperbacks of this kind were considered to be fairly disposable by used-book sellers so it would normally have an Australian price in pencil on an inside page, or in ink on the cover. I can find no evidence of either of those.
I have no idea how long the book has been in my possession, but I can safely say I've never read it before. I knew of it but Silverberg was never one of my big favourites back then. Not that I disliked him, it's just that I was interested in other writers at the time.
So this book is a peculiar one: it's possible that I've had this book for over thirty years without reading it. And that leads me to wonder if there are others on the shelves that date from that time, lying lost and forgotten. I wouldn't be at all surprised.
By the way, the reviews linked to above are pretty accurate: it's a damn good read.
