"A" of course is for Isaac Asimov. Any self respecting old SF book collector will have a few of his books in their libraries. I have four - the Foundation Trilogy and I Robot all in Panther editions. I did have The Rest of the Robots once upon a time, but it has disappeared.
Hands up who's read James Blish. He's not an author you hear much about these days, but he did write some very interesting books. I see him in my mind as the forerunner to James Morrow's apocryphal writing in Towing Jehovah and its sequels.
Anyway, even though I have not read James Blish for years myself, it was pleasurable to rediscover his books on the bookshelf. I have an omnibus version of Cities In Fight also known as the "Okies" stories.
Also I have his After Such Knowledge series which began with A Case of Conscience, followed by Doctor Mirabilis, Black Easter or Faust Aleph-null and The Day After Judgement.
And to finish, Leigh Brackett's The Halfling and Other Stories in a 1973 Ace books edition.

