hi, this is oliver. I just found this bradbury-site on the internet. I am glad I did.
Well, I am 24 years old and in summer 2000 I found a book in a bookshop called: "Long past midnight" and bought it. It was a book full of short stories and I loved. I realised that it was written by Ray Bradbury and I already had read "Fahrenheit", so I decided to look if there are more books so as wonderful as these. Then I found "Dandelion Wine".

You should know: My father never read a book before. Yeah, he tried but never finished one. Until I gave "Dandelion Wine" to him.
He loved it. He reads. He began reading my works (still unpublished) too. That's something I never dreamd of.

And that is how Ray Bradbury inspired and changed my life. My father is now proud of me. He likes he things I write now that he read them, but he would never have read them without reading "Dandelion wine" before.
I never had such an wonderful relation to my father as I have since then.

For that I thank you, Mr. Bradbury.
God bless you.

Welcome aboard, Oliver. We are glad to have you with us. Ray has inspired many of us in different ways, and I enjoyed hearing about how his books helped you build a closer relationship with your father. What kind of writing have you done so far? We would be interested to hear about it.

When I first read Dandelion Wine in HS, I enjoyed it, but it didn't ring any bells with me. I recently re-read it and was mad about it. A great book. I can see why your father resonated with it.

The power of books is simply awesome. It is cool that it helped you and your dad get closer. Thanks for sharing your story here.

Ray Bradbury...hmm...yes...
You don't really associate writer's name with feelings until you read his or her writings. And thats kinda great when you begin to understand what hides under that name.
Today I read "The Fog Horn". My first Ray Bradbury reading. There is much pathos in it. But surprisingly it does not decrease the effect the story makes. Very, very sad story. I guess most of you have read that one. But im sure the feeling when one firstly reads sth like that of an author that he/she have never read, that must be different from that when you have read some other works of that author and you have some "sculpture" of the authors method, pathos and form.
Im happy, because this day is one of the meaningful days in my life, as today is the first time I read Ray Bradbury. I'm eager to read all of his stories and other works.

And, of course, happy new year to all of you!

Nadjaf

Welcome...also to the duplicatorial indiosyncrasies of a posting.

Most often, your first try to post, works. Subsequent ones can be eliminated by clicking on the icon with the 'pencil' (or 'pen'). That will still leave you with a post, but a blank one, with the words at the bottom, "edited by..."

Eventually, if 'Dandelion', the site moderator, feels up to it, she'll delete the unnecessary.

Or we can look at your posts, as
����'Three Cheers' for the New Years!! ���

Can't believe it...now I did it, too....

Well, since I'm here, mind as well make note of something I left out in above post. Once you click on the 'pencil' icon, you have to 'highlight' all that you want to delete, THEN hit the delete button. That will leave you with a blank post....

[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 12-30-2003).]

Well, happy new year to everyone.
Im from Azerbaijan, the west coast of Caspian Sea. Great forum; I hope soon there will be more forums on the net about writers.
But i think there is a problem on my side. I don't see the messages I post. Can anyone help me with it? thx

Good things take time, especially on this forum. Sometimes your post will appear in two minutes, other times it is there but not visible for two days.

Oliver:
Wow, what a touching tale about your father!

Nadjaf:
Welcome! Last month there was an Azerbaijani orchestra that had a concert at my school, and I went to see it. Maybe you've heard of the leader...Aaughh! I can't remember his name. Maybe you'll know. Anyway, very nice music.

Thank you all for your warm welcome. It is wonderful for me to see that there are still people out there who enjoy reading (and it is even better that they enjoy the same writer(s) as I do).

@Imskipper: well, not much, after all I am only 24 and I don't think I am that good. I would love to send you sthg to read, but unfortunatly it's in german, I am from Austria. I wrote about 200 poems, some short stories and four days ago I startet my fifth novel. Well, as I said before, still unpublished, but a few weeks ago a publisher called me and right now we negotiate about publishing some of my poems.

I would be glad if you would visit my website (although it is in german too), but you will see what exactly I wrote and all that.

I just rebuild it (the last one didn't come up to my expectations), but I'll let you know when it's back online (may take some time).

Cheers and a happy new year to all of you!
oliver