hope no one was offended by the above........

whats cake for one can be *%#+ for another or visa versa. Some authors and subjects require an aquired ability or affinity to gain the skills to appreciate them. I reeked at Math,frustrated me to tears. I loved to enter a book, and did regularly, and still do. After having to take 4 different courses in college mathematics, and paying a tutor with a painting for her time. I passed the math requirement. Reading Mr Bradbury, and many other authors helped me to think, and focus
on many differing subjects which keep me actively trying to learn more all the time.
I have been lucky enough to work in a University Library, this gives me the opportunity to explore my varied interests.
Mr Bradbury sparked alot of the joy that I take in living part of my days in a Library! For that I am very grateful that I was led almost by the hand to read his works in my home town library, and then when I had read all of the fiction of his, and others I went on to get a card at a nearby town Library with a better selection of what I wanted. I love to get lost in the stacks.

Favorite short stories: "Homecoming" and "Uncle Einar"

Favorite novel: "Dandelion Wine"

Favorite collection: "The October Country"

What a selection you guys have chosen! There is not one "acknowledged favorite" of everyone. I have a lot in common with you. When I was in school we were using textbooks I think were published not long after Bradbury's work began to appear in textbooks. The only stories of his I remember having in school were "The Dragon" and "The Gift." I also sucked at math. Even when I could do the assignments I would forget to hand them in and flunk for work I'd done! Always had my nose in a book, generally Bradbury. Also got a card from a larger library. Back then it was $10 and I could read 50-60 books a year, so quite a good deal. Now that library has become real snobs, charges $50 to anyone outside city limits, including county residents, and I'm outside the county and am lucky to read 25 books a year. I now haunt thrift stores and used book sales, but that library does have a nice discard shelf! I agree about certain stories being over some kids' heads and you never know what will appeal to who. Venusian claims to be 14 and says "Powerhouse" is "a very moving story." I read it at 13 and didn't understand it a bit, I assure you. Even "Invisible Boy" was a bit past me then. I had to reread those in college. It was not until college literature courses that I learned where so many Bradbury titles came from! I remember at 10 seeing "I Sing the Body Electric" on a bookshelf in a home where I was visiting and thinking I couldn't read a book where I couldn't even understand the title! Of course, it's a big favorite now. Rainwalker, your sister sounds like a meanie. My sisters may have been mean, but even they were not *that* bad. I remember when I took "I Sing the Body Electric" out of the library in ninth grade, my mom and grandma got ahold of it and read "Tomorrow's Child" out loud and they and my sisters laughed all the way through it. I was so glad I'd read the story to myself first as it didn't strike me funny at all, quite the contrary.

My favourite story is "The October Game"

My favourite collection: "Long After Midnight"

My favourite novel: The Martian Chronicles.

And from a purely Irish point of view favourite story has to be "Getting through Sunday somehow"

Fahren#451. What a lasting impression! ...and "Something Wicked This Way Comes"...I loved the movie they made of that one, too.
On an aside, I, too, am a mathphobic! Always loved music and literature. Different strokes for different folks...and "it takes ALL kinds!"

Favorite SF stories: "Frost and Fire", "A Sound of Thunder", and "The Long Rain".

Favorite Irish one: "The Anthem Sprinters".

Mexican: "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit", "The Next In Line".

Suspense/Horror: "Gotcha", "The Small Assassin", "The Jar", "The Burning Man'.

Conventional fiction: "The Better Part of Wisdom", "Long After Midnight", "The Swan".

Mellin Town stories: "The Traveler".

No explanation; the stories speak for themselves, and anyway, there'll be almost as many choices as readers.

Of the novels, Fahrenheit 451 is a shoo-in.

Finally read Powerhouse. I was pleased with the implications, and reference to the unseen. The description of the pulsing sound, with the interior of the room that the couple have to bivouc in is excellent.

Thanks goes to Venusian/Dandelion for the post, I had not read the story so I looked it up.

My favorite story is Rocket Man but just cuz I can't stand to leave it like that, here are some others..."Chrysalis", "Pillar of Fire", "The Flying Machine", "Ylla", and you know, a lot of the others that have already been mentioned.

I would really love to see "Chrysalis" turned into a section of some "Outer Limits"
episode, or something comparable. The transition theme would fit right into a current situation.

The following list from RBTheater holds up against anything being done today on tv. Much of the s-f/fantasy stuff is "camp" - lacking the suspense and drama presented in these episodes.
http://www.geocities.com/tellytyme/raybradburytheater.html

Still "no signs" of RBTheater being aired anywhere on cable. I just presented Veldt, Usher II, Long Years, Zero Hour, & Earthmen: Great reads, enhanced clearly by RB's screen sense and supervision of the project during the years the short films were produced.

[This message has been edited by fjpalumbo (edited 02-27-2003).]

fjpalumbo::
Gee, thanks for this...
Didn't realize all these were available on DVD or tTape.....I had a friend years ago who had this vast collection of Bradbury materials, from original ms. to signed hard to find translations, etc... It filled a room. He sold it, or donated it, something, about 1978-79 thereabouts. He said there was just darn took many things to collect. Unless you are Bill Nolan, or Donn Albright, he may be right back then, but is certainly right ...right now....

fjpalumbo::
Yep! Double posting here... so with this delete, mind as well just add a paragraph or two...
Unless Ray is doing original script materials, I doubt if anyone is going to pick up the previous Theaters. Maybe... who knows? They still repeat 'Twilight Zone' originals now and then, especially on the SciFi channel.
Of course who would ever think...ever think ever...that televison would someday have channels strictly dedicated to one subject: Weather Channel/ Book Span/ Homes and Gardens/ Black Music/ Cooking....
Now with the Internet and a camera, you have dedicated hours of street interviews, like one I found in New Orleans...just like television remote, with this tiny picture but great quality of televison screen and sound... You have singers and entertainers in restaurants and clubs, you have the worst and some of the best... it is wild and crazy out there, with something tremendous about the happen with all this...but beats me if I can say exactly what....

[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 02-27-2003).]

I listed "Powerhouse" on another post as one of the stories that got me started. I'm pleased to see that it also affected others on various levels. To me, the story has two qualities I like. One is a simple pleasure in Mr. bradbury's descriptive language when he speaks of the interior of the power station as a place which was "as clean as bolt of green lightning and smelled similarly," and in which "there was a crackling, eating sound, a dry rustling sound as of paper; flickers of blue fire shuttled, snapped, sparked, hissed where wires joined porcelain bobbins and green glass insulation."

The other quality of this story is one which Dandelion accurately described as difficult to understand. Here Mr. Bradbury speaks about something that is just outside our understanding, something that is singularly spiritual and yet human; something that haunts us like not quite remembered melody, regarding life and the intertwining of our collective consciousness; all of us everywhere, past and present.

fjpalumbo: I have found that Sci Fi Channel kind of does a rotation of Bradbury Theater. It shows them for about three months and then it drops them for a few months. Every so often I go to their website and do a search of the t.v. listings. Then I know when they'll be aired. They do the search for the next month. Right now, none are in the works, but Martian Chronicles will be aired on March 18 in the morning.