Callahan's Crosstime Saloon

I'll name a slightly embarrassing one last. Callahan's Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson. The stories haven't all aged well, and neither has Robinson's hippie progressive-for-the-80s-ism, which is sometimes as tone-deaf as it is enthusiastic. Nonethless: as a teenager, I needed the portrayal of welcoming community among freaks and nerds and laconic introverts. I needed it hard. I'm sure it existed in many places -- all stories about freaks and nerds come from the same place -- but this is where I found it.

-- Andrew Plotkin