Those of you who attended Readercon last July can skip this entry. But as for the rest of you …

I’ve attended every Readercon since the first, back in 1987, the only non-committee member to have done so. When the con runners asked for appreciations to print in the program book on the occasion of its 20th installment, I decided to do something no other attendee was capable of doing—write up my thoughts on all 19 cons that preceded it.

Since I’ve been keeping an almost daily diary since 1978, I went back and pulled out one anecdote per year, to which I added clarifying footnotes. In a few instances, Eric Van added footnotes as well.

In any case, I’ve had several requests for copies of this essay, so I thought I’d toss it out onto the interwebs. It should explain to anyone’s satisfaction why Readercon has always been my favorite con.