Here we are celebrating May The 4th, also known as Star Wars Day, once again. And I was going to try and write up something based on the new movie coming out or something cool about the cast…but I decided to go a different route. Today, I’m going to tell you about some of the most influential Star Wars-related things that have occurred in my life, starting with the original movie.

I was six when the first Star Wars film hit theaters and, as we all know, that’s a highly impressionable age. The film amazed me, as I’m sure it did virtually everyone. But the true influence at that time was the line of toys that accompanied it. My first three figures were Darth Vader, R2-D2, and C-3PO. I remember being angry that the local stores were sold out when we were out shopping, but my ever-awesome Aunt Cathy managed to find those three action figures somewhere and gave them to me for my birthday about a month after the movie came out. It was the beginning of 35 years of collecting, though I had no idea of that at the time.

For Cyber Monday today, Amazon is offering up to 75% off on more than 900 Kindle ebooks.

Check out the main Cyber Monday Kindle Deals page to browse the selections, which can also be browsed through by category (science fiction, mystery, literature and fiction, non-fiction, etc). Prices are as low as $.99 for eBooks by Jack Higgins, Barbara Hambly, Alan Dean Foster, Alice Walker, and many more.

Here’s a few sale items that caught my interest:

– Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho – $2.99
– Henry VIII: Wolfman by A. E. Moorat – $3.99
– The Theory of Relativity: and Other Essays by Albert Einstein – $2.99
– The Time of the Dark: The Darwath Series (Book One) by Barbara Hambly – $1.99
– Spellsinger: A Spellsinger Adventure (Book One) by Alan Dean Foster – $1.99

May the Force be with you all! Geeks of Doom will be posting a couple of Star Wars articles today, May 25, for Universal Day of the Jedi, which celebrates the anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars movie.

This year, Universal Day of the Jedi also celebrates the anniversary of Timothy Zahn‘s novel, Heir to the Empire. The initial release of this novel 20 years ago this month is significant, because it was quite literally groundbreaking: its impact would open the floodgates for an amazing deluge of Star Wars novels and comics – turning the Expanded Universe into an EXPANDING Universe.

Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy, of which Heir to the Empire is the first part, is widely regarded by many fans as one of the best series of Star Wars books to ever have been released. Some fans even consider the trilogy to be the equivalent of the closest we may ever get to a Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. Timothy Zahn has continued his journeys into the Expanded Star Wars Universe through the years – exploring deeper into the history and legacy of Grand Admiral Thrawn, the continual growing relationship between Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade, and also the mysteries behind the enigmatic Outbound Flight.

I figured with this month being the anniversary of Zahn’s masterpiece, and also with today being Universal Day of the Jedi, it would be a good opportunity to take a look back at some of the finer examples of Star Wars novels over the years.

Pocket Books has indefinitely postponed the release of four planned new Star Trek universe tie-in novels, all of which had storylines that take place just after the events of JJ Abrams’ Star Trek film, so as to not interfere with the film’s sequel plans.

After the huge success of Abrams’ Star Trek movie, which was released in theaters May 2009, Pocket Books had announced their plans to release the four new Trek tie-in novels in Summer 2010. Just last week, TrekMovie posted the summaries and preliminary covers for the planned books.

The novels were written by some big name scifi/Trek authors — Alan Dean Foster, Christopher L. Bennett, David Mack, and Greg Cox — which makes this postponement news even more disappointing for Trek fans [i.e., me].

Zachary Quinto has posted a 5-minute audio sample of the Star Trek novelization’s audiobook, of which he is the narrator.

Listen to the clip here below.

Quinto, who stars as Spock in the newest Star Trek film, voices all of the characters in the full 8.5-hour audiobook, which is based on the film adaptation by Alan Dean Foster and includes parts of the story that did not make it into the movie.

Speaking of Quinto, who attended the MTV Music Awards this weekend with his Heroes co-star Hayden Panetierre, the actor attended a fundraiser last week where he got the chance to shake hands with President Obama. Quite amusing, considering how the President has repeatedly been compared to the character Spock, with several photoshopped images of Obama with pointy Vulcan ears and eyebrows. Quinto is a big supporter of the President and had campaigned for him during the election.

There’s pictures from Quinto’s encounter with the President over at ZacharyQuinto.com.