cryptochrome's Journal: Somewhere in time...

Have you ever had a book that you read ages ago, but can't quite remember what it was? Somewhere in the distant realms of my childhood, I read my first SF book, thus setting me on my path to geekdom. I'm not sure when it was but these vague memories are bugging me. The book was probably written in the '60s, '70s, or very early '80s. It may or may not have been juvenile fiction, as I seem to recall picking it up at some school. I'm pretty sure it wasn't in an anthology of short stories, but I doubt it was very long. At least part of the story takes place on a ship travelling through empty blackness (whether due to relativistic or some other mode of travel I don't know). However people could go outside. There was a foam gun used to repair holes in the spacecraft, which was used at some point. I keep thinking it involved Tau Space, but I have read and remember Frederik Pohl's Heechee Saga and I don't think that was it.

Well, I realize that's not a whole lot to go on. Just thought I'd put it out there.

On a positive note, I was able to determine another book I was barely remembering, thanks to Amazon's nifty book text search feature: The Hero and the Crown.