Learning a lot reading Becoming Ray Bradbury.

'Tis a remarkably educational book!

Alarmingly so.

Finished Becoming Ray Bradbury by Jonathan R. Eller, on April 21. Extremely detailed account of Ray's early writing life and influences, well-written, highly readable and informative.

Finished Ray Bradbury by Michéle Griskey, on April 22. This juvenile biography is MUCH BETTER than the first one I read. It does read more like a long encyclopedia entry than a story, but is clearly written with many informative "FYI" pages. I didn't learn anything about Ray I didn't know, and I noticed only one real mistake--she said his toy typewriter worked like a real one--that and a couple of typos make for very minor mistakes in this one, and I did learn things about Mars, the space program, Halloween, etc.

The October Country. Stellar writing! I even like reading his introductions as well as they give a bit of how some of his stories evolved.

Finished Conversations with Ray Bradbury, edited by Steven L. Aggelis, on April 27.

This is a stellar achievement in bringing together interviews conducted 1948-2002 together into one volume. Full of fascinating insights.

Finished Ray Bradbury: Legendary Fantasy Writer by Charles Piddock, on April 30.

This is a biography intended for ages 11 and up. Downside is it is the most expensive of all the kids' biographies. I only afforded an ex-library copy. No idea why it was discarded; it is a pretty good book, almost as accurate as Michéle Griskey's.

Quibbles with it:

Page 37: He says Ray joined the Los Angeles Science Fiction League in 1936 rather than 1937.

Pages 39 - 40: He says a number of fans dressed up for the first World Science Convention in 1939. Weller's book makes it clear that only Forry Ackerman and his girlfriend dressed up, starting the trend.

Photo captions have little to do with the time the photographs were taken. For instance, 1950s photos with captions about things Ray did in the '30s and '40s. He must have had access to at least some family pictures as there were some of Ray and his parents I had never seen before.

Page 47: Uses the phrase "poet of the pulps" before it was coined by Time Magazine.

Page 50: States "Ray had been on one date before [Maggie] in his life, and that had been years before." Does anyone know where he gets this? I'm sure I read that Ray would occasionally take out a girl with his newspaper earnings.

Page 91: He has Ray and the driver of the limousine which broke down on the way to EPCOT in Florida hiking some distance twice--contrary to Ray's account of events which is found both in Weller and in Ray Bradbury Speaks.

Page 96: Says Maggie refused to get out of bed, Weller says she tried but was unable.

Otherwise pretty good book, informative and almost as good as Griskey's which manages to cover about as much ground in half the pages. Both are beautifully produced on slick paper with color illustrations. Griskey's is more reasonably priced.

I recently reread Fahrenheit 451 and forgot how good it was. Rereading Ray takes me back to those days in the 1960s when I discovered him. He was the first author whose works I actively sought out, acquired and devoured. I still remember the Bantam paperbacks lined up on my shelf.

Yesterday the UPS guy delivered my copy of Zen in the Art of Writing. I will begin it tonight. Yum.

Finished reading Ray Bradbury by John Bankston on May 2. What can I say about this book except that it makes the other three kids' biographies look brilliant by comparison--even Wendy Mass's, with which I was not greatly impressed. It is a maddening read with a mistake about every two pages--not so much glaring as just really, really annoying.

Quality control was remarkably low on this book. I don't know if all the mistakes are the author's or some are the typesetter's. Also, my copy had two pages 25-26 so presumably there's some other copy missing that page. No pages missing in mine.

One of the most maddening things about this book is its mangling of the names of people, places, titles, etc. It seems to specialize in spelling them right on one page and wrong on another.

Page 17: Marie Esther Moberg (wrong); Page 116: Esther Marie Moberg (right)

Page 17: Spalding (wrong); Page 93 and 128 Spaulding (right)

meaning he has both parents' names wrong on the page describing Ray's birth.

Page 26: Has the radio station's call letters as KGR; it was KGAR.

On pages 41 and 42, Ray's fanzine is Futuria Fantasia (correct), on pages 43, 46, and in the index it is Future Fantasia.

Page 59 and 117: "One Timeless Spring" (right); on another page it was "A Timeless Spring" (wrong).

Page 83: "so could make notes" instead of "so he could make notes"

Page 94: quotes someone stating Bradbury refused to "fly an airplane." Well, so would most of us! As Ray said in "A Sound of Thunder," little things, such as the word "in," count!

On page 128, the main character of Something Wicked This Way Comes is William Halloway (right), on page 98 he is "Holliday."

The author of a book on Bradbury is correctly referred to in a number of places as David Mogen but on page 79 he is "Mogan."

On page 89, Roald Dahl becomes "Ronald" Dahl.

On pages 59 and 117, "The Miracles of Jamie" in Charm becomes "The Miracles of Jane" in Charmed. The author can't even stay consistent in getting it right once and then wrong--that one was wrong both times!

Errors of fact:
(On the upside, at least there's an index so I can quickly find all these mistakes!)

Page 11: He has Ray's 1949 New York trip occurring in 1950.

On page 19 he says Ray's sister Elizabeth was born in 1926 and died in 1927. On page 116 he says she was born in 1925 and died in 1926. Neither is correct; she was born on March 27, 1927 and died on February 8, 1928. He had Sam Weller's book and didn't even check it!

Page 15: he has "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms"/"The Fog Horn" confused with "The Creatures that Time Forgot"/"Frost and Fire." Gets it right on page 69.

There are probably more; if I come across them I'll post them for what good it does.

The book is longer than the others, but not because it says any more about Ray. It quotes books on writing, World War II, the Cold War, and other subjects.

Of the four books, Griskey's is the clear winner, with most amount of information in least amount of pages and least amount of mistakes. Bankston's is the loser, with greatest amount of pages with least amount of information and most mistakes. The other two fall in between.

The worst thing about Bankston's book is not what it says, but what it does not--he TOTALLY LEAVES OUT MR. ELECTRICO! WHAT THE!?!

Need I say more? C-!

Finished Dogs Think That Every Day Is Christmas on January 30 and With Cat for Comforter on January 31.

Golden Apples of the Sun just a month or so ago.