Not too long ago I wanted to buy some Perry Rhodan ebooks.
Who is Perry Rhodan? It's a series of dime novels going back to the sixties. Shortly before the landing on the moon, this German series of A5 booklets, each more or less 60 pages long, started to appear. The main character is one of the astronauts landing on the moon. On the dark side of the moon, they discover aliens, and with this technology they return to Earth, end the cold war, explore the galaxy, gain immortality, and on and on.
The series has slowed down somewhat. They're on a biweekly schedule, now. Not too long ago, episode 3300 was published.
I had subscribed to the series when I was between 14 and 16 years old. I wanted some of this back. An optimism, that humans were good, the some humans in power had integrity and good will and the energy to put things right. A tolerance, curiosity, a trust in science and technology – a deserved trust! – stories without terrible violence and torture.
When I tried to order those ebooks, I had to provide an address and when I tried to enter an address, I could only enter an address in Germany or Austria. I contacted their support and they told me it had to do with taxes. I guess it has to do with value-added tax (VAT) and Switzerland not being in the European Union? I don't know.
I started looking around on the second hand market and found somebody selling their collection from volume 1800 up to 3100 and more. Amazing. Think about it: A year has about 50 weeks, so 1300 volumes is the equivalent of 26 years of dime novels. 1300 volumes of 60 pages each is 78,000 pages of Science Fiction.
I am so into it.
I just finished reading volume 1816. I have read 17 volumes of the 1300+ I have – more than 1%! 🤭
I'll be reading for a few more years.
About 2m of shelf space, 200 volumes per cardboard box.
#Perry Rhodan #Books
