Everyone should go to bookcrossing.com and participate. Last night I left two Bradburys on park benches . . .

How cool! Thanks.

What a coincidence! Just yesterday I read an article about this, but not the same one. Yours is more detailed, so I was glad to read it. What a cool concept!

I left a copy of William Gibson on a airplane. I just could not tolerate the text and style. I'll read and re-read Bradbury anyday. This is a truly great idea. I have been sending extra copies of certain Bradbury books to old friends as of late. Tune in - turn on - and .... imagine.

[This message has been edited by patrask (edited 07-27-2003).]

Once I torn up an entire Bible, a really nice edition, too, and let pages fly all over the stairs and entrances to a subway. I didn't get caught for littering, but then I didn't see anyone picking any of the pages up either. I recon, in retrospect, there is something embarassing about picking something printedoff the ground, especially if it looks dangerously religious...
I gave many of my Bradbury books away. I decided to stop the practice before I have none....
Otherwise, I think it's a great idea.
I always pull Bradbury books off the book store shelves and 'display' them predominantly. Did that at a mall store once, and put the Anniversary Edition of F451 in the store window. It was there for days....until Mr. Extra -Neat-&-Orderly came around and noticed some angular measurement not meeting his pre-disposed eye....

Good idea, Nard! I'll be visiting my local bookstores this week just to try something like that.

Nard:

I do this, too. I rearrange the shelves to make Bradbury's books more prominent. I turn them face-forward and put the other books sideways in the shelves -- giving him more visibility and shelf space.

Why should upcoming generations read "lesser" writers just because the new books get more prominent positioning by the bookstores?

(New writers are great. I don't put them behind Bradbury's stuff, I just turn them sideways.)

Mr. Dark
Imskipper, others:

That's it! We're all CRAZZZY!!

At the Public Library in Waukegan, Illinois, I was nearly arrested for taking a picture of the shelf with Ray's books. The librarian marched me into the head librarian's office. When he saw the nice neighborhood map Ray had put together for me, he was so impressed he made a copy of it and let me go. I didn't see what all the fuss was about. The picture showed books, and a shelf, only, no building details or people. What's more, I had straightened out all the books on the shelf and put them in exact order by author and title! I thought that first librarian was being a bit ungrateful.

Nard, I like to think of myself as eccentric, not crazy. I went out to a great used bookstore I just discovered and bought extra copies of Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 to give away because I can't bear to part with my own copies. And Dandelion, I loved your story!

Imskipper: I meant it more along the lines of Steve Martin's...'craazy guy'.....In a nice way, anyhow....

Dandelion:
Years back, long before metal detectors and the such, I was in that same Waukegan Library ...and there, right there on the shelf, there's this copy of "Dark Carnival" a most beautiful copy, with the Waukegan Library nameplate and card attached to the inside cover. I had an angel on one shoulder, and the devil on the other. But the good angel won out. I took the book, probably to a younger and definitely more sociable girl at the desk than the one you encountered... and told her in no uncertain terms the value of such a book on a shelf that was open to all the ways of an evil world. I said...it needed every bit of protection she could muster. The book, I recall, was never again seen, or returned to the library's public shelf...

[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 07-28-2003).]

Kind of off on a tangent here... But, did any of you think that the Waukegan Public Library was just about the UGLIEST building that you have ever seen? I couldn't believe my eyes... just a depressing concrete box. This, as compared to the old Carnegie-style library that Mr Bradbury himself was familiar with--very nice, from what I could see of it (I couldn't go inside). I guess I'm just a nostalgia nut, but I have very little patience with a lot of 'modern' architecture, which seems to eliminate any trace of grace from its form...

Oh, and Miss Dandelion....

Do you think that it would ever be possible to post on-line a version of the neighbourhood map that you have? (I assume that it contains points of interest to those who are familiar with the Green Town stories.)

It perhaps would be of interest to those who will visit Waukegan in the future. It's been a good fifteen years since I've been there, but I hope to go again someday, though I don't know how I would get there! I don't even like to ride in an automobile, and somehow managed never to learn how to drive. (I just have the feeling that I would be a really bad driver, and kill myself instantly.) Do trains still run there?

Very interesting stuff, Lance. Thank ya.

Yes, the Waukegan Public Library is truly an inspiring structure, double ditto the Lake County Courthouse. They inspire the following thoughts, calling to mind Ray's statement that this time (referring to about mid-twentieth century on) will be looked on as the most artistically bankrupt period in history, and that Prince Charles was right in his statement that Nazi bombers left nothing more offensive behind than rubble, and it was the modern architechts who did the real damage to cities. For a real lump in the throat, take a look inside the Lake County Courthouse at the panoramic picture of the beautiful building which formerly occupied that site, courthouse clock and all. Ray has written a lot about how each city's architecture should reflect it character--it shouldn't all be identical buildings turned out of the same factory. (Think, little boxes on the hillside....) Too bad those who built the library didn't use Ray's plan. True, I think his was for a bookstore, and was mostly an indoor plan, but truly an enchanted and inspired place. Nard, your fortitude is admirable, and, yes, when I went there in 1984 trains still ran. I don't suppose that's changed?