From the Bookshelf: Foundation; Foundation and Empire; Second Foundation

Drifting along the science fiction aisle of the big local bookstore a while back now (just perhaps indulging in that "poor me" feeling of disconnection from the modern currents of SF), I happened to notice three familiar titles combined in new trade dress. An "Everyman's Library" edition of Isaac Asimov's first three Foundation books both intrigued and amused me. I had the sense of works of unpretentious prose, the better to communicate pure ideas, just having stuck around long enough to now be placed among "non-genre" or even "literary" company, even if I could also wonder about some being that much more convinced the books had become "too well-known to challenge people." Beyond that, though, the thought of getting a handsome new edition with a new foreword setting the books in historical perspective did begin to bounce through my mind, as much as I knew it seemed a complete indulgence...
( And yet, there were still surprises )