December 2012: Ray Bradbury

We still have a few days before this month actually arrives, but I did start reading some Ray Bradbury already. Perhaps cliched, but I began with Fahrenheit 451.

I have an audio version downloaded from my local library, which features Bradbury reading the book. This was a bit disappointing to me once I saw here on LibraryThing that there's another audio version featuring Scott Brick - an amazing audio book reader - as the narrator. But, oh well, this should be interesting, too.

I've only gotten a few minutes into the book so I don't have any real first thoughts on it yet. Looking forward to hearing what you all have to say about the book(s) that you read this month!

I have The Golden Apples of the Sun to read and will try and find a copy of Fahrenheit 451 to read as it's something I've always meant to read. I think I have Dandelion Wine somewhere and maybe a collection of short stories, if I haven't got rid of then in a book hull.
The short story 'Skeleton' is here to listen to for free: http://www.podcast-directory.co.uk/episodes/skeleton-ray-bradbury-14731949.html

> 2 Oh cool! I'm going to have to check out "Skeleton" later.

I have The Illustrated Man, Fahrenheit 451, and my signed copy of A Pleasure to Burn: Fahrenheit 451 Stories on my shelves. Will definitely be cracking them out soon. :)

I have read Farenheit 451 a few years ago and Dandelion Wine earlier this year.

I have on my bookshelves Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales which I picked up at a book fair this year for $3. So I'll dip into these as time permits.

Ooh that sounds awesome, @kiwiflowa! (and sweet deal, too!)

I stole a copy of Fahrenheit 451 from school and will probably start it later this afternoon, it looks right up my street, so I'm surprised I never picked it up before.

Somehow I managed to never read him when I was younger. It wasn't intentional! lol. So I finally read Something Wicked This Way Comes a little over 2 yrs ago, and have the others I mentioned above waiting on the shelves. :))

Has anyone else picked anything up yet? I've been reading my copy of Fahrenheit 451. It's a newer one so it has several intros, as he added more relevant info over time. Those already were quite interesting. Haven't gotten too far into the actual text yet, but I'm quite intrigued!

I have an old edition of Fahrenheit 451 I've got about 40 pages left to go, I'me really enjoying the story and have folded lots of page edges on passages that I want to use for school or note down for future reference. Will be finished on Sunday hopefully.

I was reading more this morning, on p76 of 190. Definitely enjoying it!

Annnd finished! ;)

So, wow. I can't believe I went so long without reading this book! It's amazing and terrifying, and all the more so because I can completely see the US getting to this point in the next century if things don't start going the other direction soon. It's no wonder at all this has been so timeless. And the ending is just so completely perfect! I just, I'm at a loss for words here, all I can think is just how brilliant it was! And somehow I don't think stewing in it for a bit would change that, either. haha. Damn. That was good. Anyone who hasn't read it yet better get on it, you are seriously missing out!

I haven't read F451 since I was a teenager. I liked it then, but feel as though I probably didn't catch everything I should have. Currently I have a big collection of Ray's short stories and SWTWC, but that's it. Anyone want to do some stories?

I'm about to read Joe Sacco's graphic novel Palestine, but after that (it'll only take a couple days) I was planning on the one I mentioned earlier, A Pleasure to Burn: Fahrenheit 451 Stories. :)

I have found a few stories free on the net which I will be reading, need to finish Fahrenheit 451 first

I'm also planning on Illustrated Man after Pleasure to Burn, since that's the other one I own, and maybe possibly getting one from the library on my next trip (near the end of the month), since I checked and they do have 10 of his in English (of course, two being ones I own, heh). We shall see! :P

I finally finished Fahrenheit 451, it took a little longer than expected an I ended up getting ill over the weekend. This is a great book, I can't believe that it took me so long to get around to reading it as I love dystopian fiction and books so this is perfect for me.
The opening pages are the most perfect part of this book for me, when the fireman meets the young girl on the street and their walk home together. The description and the atmosphere created in just those few pages was exquisite. I also loved all the smells at the end for anyone whi has red the whole book. I have several pages with corners turned to copy out and plan on getting the school I work at to buy me a class set to teach.
I have to finish a few books for other things but hope to get some of Bradbury's stories read and possibly another novel before the end of the month.

I totally felt the same way. Everything about it was just exquisite! He made the perfect book, I swear. lol

ETA
I'm really hating this stupid Palestine comic, so planning on being done with it by this afternoon and starting right up on more Bradbury, to wash away the yicky taste it leaves. ugh.

Just picked up Dandelion Wine I'm going to read a little of a day whilst I tackle Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope

I've read two of the stories so far in Pleasure to Burn. Both were good, of course, but I really enjoyed the second one. Bradbury truly knew what he was doing. Who else could make dead men so poignant?

I'm reading The Martian Chronicles and it's even worse than Fahrenheit 451.

>21 MarthaJeanne:

I did not like Fahrenheit 451, and that's why I did not vote for Bradbury. Nonetheless, I started reading Zen in the art of writing. Releasing the creative genius within you and I am really enjoying it. It also makes me curious about his fiction, which I will give a try after I finish this.

Unfortunately, December is the last month of this term, and I an extremely busy. I may not be able to write up my reading experience of Bradbury before the end of the month.

You can write about it whenever you like. If you read more Bradbury in the future, feel free to come back and post in this thread, etc. That goes for any author at any time, of course.

Finished The Martian chronicles. I guess I won't try more by him.

Aw, that makes me sad. lol. I dearly love his work!

I thought both this and Fahrenheit 451 absolute garbage. Sorry about that.

Different strokes for different folks!

I'm not doing well with Dandelion Wine I'm afraid, it's just not grabbing my interest.