The Concise Version Science Fiction should only be read in mass-market paperback, preferably with a garishly illustrated cover. And the reader should be 12 years old. The Verbose, Profusely Self-Referential Version Science Fiction should never be read in hardback. Paperbacks merely by their tatty, down-market appearance flag you as someone who's just that type of shifty subversive capable of imagining a reality more than half a step distant from the status-quo. And you can hide it away in your back pocket so won't be eyeballed as one of those people should you ever find yourself in some rigidly conformist stronghold -- like a Whole Foods or University campus. Back in the previous century, when libraries actually bought books instead of burning them, it was common to have at least a couple of spinner racks stuffed with Sci-Fi paperbacks. A perfect gateway drug for youngsters venturing out from the Heinlein juveniles stashed in the children's section. I can't remember wh...