This Crowded Earth: Unabridged

This Crowded Earth (1958) is a science fiction novel by Robert Bloch. Excerpt from the book: "The telescreen lit up promptly at eight a.m. Smiling Brad came on with his usual greeting. "Good morningamp;mdash;it's a beautiful day in Chicagee!" Harry Collins rolled over and twitched off the receiver. "This I doubt," he muttered. He sat up and reached into the closet for his clothing. Visitorsamp;mdash;particularly feminine onesamp;mdash;were always exclaiming over the advantages of Harry's apartment. "So convenient," they would say. "Everything handy, right within reach. And think of all the extra steps you save!" Of course most of them were just being polite and trying to cheer Harry up. They knew damned well that he wasn't living in one room through any choice of his own. The Housing Act was something you just couldn't get around; not in Chicagee these days. What was the population in New Philly now? Something like 63,000,000, wasn't it? Chicagee was much smalleramp;mdash;only 38,000,000, this year."