According to my new Futurama calendar, today is Isaac Asimov's birthday. He would have been 86.
The man was a freaking writing machine, and sadly I didn't start to read him until my mid-20's. I loved Foundation and I, Robot from beginning to end, and thankfully I have a lot of his other fiction to read -- when I stop being lazy. Strangely, I was initially hooked on him not by reading his work but Harlan Ellison's -- namely, the original screenplay adaptation of Asimov's I, Robot.
Speaking of which.
I'm fairly certain that there were no car chases or hawt scientists in I, Robot; if the film's producers woulda just titled the thing Will Smith Beats Up Some Robots, I'd've seen it by now.
His short stories and novels are not hard to find; do yourself a favor and read one this week. It's a great way to honor the guy, and they're a ripping good read besides. And if you read "The Ugly little Boy", and you don't get weepy at the end, you are a dirty communist mutant traitor, and you probably laughed at the end of "Jurassic Bark", too, didn't you?
