I actually heard first of Ray Bradbury through my art teacher when she played tapes of his radio show for the class. Then I bought Fahrenheit 451 and that was the first thing of his I've read. Since then I've been hooked.

Pulpmariachi,
Welcome! What a fabulous name! Please visit the "Who are YOU?" thread under the "Resources" section, to tell us what inspired such a moniker!

"Kaleidoscope" - in an old Dutch-language sf collection, when I was 11 or 12. Roughly at the same time I found "The Veld" in another collection. Soon after that I read The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 - shattering experiences at that tender age.

The Martian Chronicles is what got me started. Both the NBC mini-series adaptation and Ray's classic book.

The Martian Chronicles got me started too. The book, that is, more years ago than I care to remember. "Ylla" got me rolling and by "The Third Expedition" the deal was sealed. I was ten.

[This message has been edited by Beirut Wedding (edited 07-28-2004).]

Some months ago I read a book by a Swedish writer (Majgull Axelsson) with the title "The April Witch". In her credits she mentioned that RB's story had inspired her to write this novel. I very much enjoyed reading it - and that's how I came to read Ray Bradbury. However, "The April Witch" was not the first story I read, I started with the collection "One More for the Road" (as it was more easily available than "The Golden Apples of the Sun"), and was quite touched and fascinated by its second story, "Heart Transplant". So, actually it was this story that really got me started and made me read more and more...

hi, i'm new but have been reading ray's stuff since i was around 12. i was searching through the stacks at the local Edmonton library and picked out Something Wicked this way Comes. as i read it, i felt the cold and dark on my arms, i felt the small-town young-kid's bubble of existence settle nostalgicly (a word?) around me, and still today, when i think of that story, i am transported to that town, after dark, with spooky things in the distance. i love the fact that reading that book has made me feel that was part of my life, something i experienced. i love the magic Ray's words create.

i just finished F451 again, every 10 years my brain leaks away the details just enough so i can enjoy it again as if it was the first time.

I found Dandelion Wine at a library book sale in the summer of 1975 when I had just turned 13. The book colored and shaped the way I saw the world for years, until I grew up and lost the capacity for that feeling of dreaming while awake.

quote:

Originally posted by redjellydonut:
until I grew up and lost the capacity for that feeling of dreaming while awake.

That's kind of sad.....I've never lost the ability to "dream while awake." Heck, I still like to lie in the grass on a summer day and see what shapes I can find in the clouds! I may be getting older, but I refuse to grow up!

Thinking about that, perhaps that's why I like Bradbury's stories, because I get a sense of being a kid, again, and seeing things through different eyes.


[This message has been edited by Korby (edited 08-05-2004).]

I meant that continuous, magical, trance-like thing that we had when we were children, the exact experience that Doug Spaulding had. I think all of us can recapture that peculiar neurochemical experience by reliving the past through reading, or by stumbling across fragrances and scents that trigger a kind of euphoric recall. Lots of things can set it off. The real wonder of Bradbury's writing, for me, is that it has the power, more so than any other writer's I know, to help recover the irrecoverable: the real, genuine feeling of being a child again.

Well said. I know exactly what you mean and am still trying to recover that feeling, or a fragment of it, but apparently life doesn't work that way.

Well, I think I was less a child as a child than I am now. Oh sure, I get cynical about a lot of things, but I think I still have that spark of childhood magic in me. Plus, I don't have a lot of good memories of my childhood....things got a lot better AFTER I hit 20! Go figure....

I envy you Korby. I'd give anything to have that magic infuse my whole day again.

For close to 3 years, I kept a 6 foot rainbow delta kite in the trunk of my car; that way, when the wind or day was right, I could fly--and in doing so, keep myself grounded. The ibuprofen savings easily paid for the kite.

Reading Ray has always had a magical and regenerative effect on me, often reuniting the kid "me" with the adult, and restoring a sense of fascination and hope. It's like flying the kite on a rainy day.

I feel so old reading these posts when people state that they started reading Ray's worksin 1975 or 1962. Wow! I am old.

It must have been R Is For Rocket or The Golden Apples of the Sun that was the first book of Ray's that I read way back in the 1960's. Later, in about 1966 I saw a poem that Ray had written for Richard Bach when Richard was editor of the Antique Airplane Associations monthly magazine. Richard had framed it and placed on the wall of his den.

Richard was a neighbor of mine and I would stop by and play chess with him and he gave me Ray's address. I later, when in the Army, got to stop by his house and meet him and I still have a book dated March of 1967. I had three but lent two out and never got them back.

Since then I have purchased almost all of the books that Ray has written. There are still things out there that I lack.

How many of you have a copy of Ray Bradbury, An American Icon, a 45 minute video that was done well and narrated by Rod Steiger?