In seventh grade my teacher had this thing about listening to books on cassette players. The first story we listened to was about a boy who's body was being taken over by a strange disease. No one would believe him though, not even his doctor or parents. i'm sure all of you guys know what happens... he ends up being totally controlled by the disease and no one realizes it. (The story itself is 1,000 times better than the summary!) I can't remember the title though. After listening to this tape i talked about it for weeks, reluctantly i didn't listen to who the author was. Some way or other i was at the box store and happened to like the cover of "The Martian Chronicles," i asked for it for my birthday and became hooked from the first paragraph on... Only recently did i happen to pick up "A Medicine for Melancholy" and happen to read the story i heard on tape in seventh grade. After I had read it, i was shocked. The first time around the ending was amazing, but the second time was unforgettable. It's wierd the way some things in lilfe fit together

Catcher, of course I know the title to the story you described: "Fever Dream."

My seduction into the world of Bradbury began in 1985 when I saw the film version of Something Wicked on cable television, and subsequently the first three Bradbury Theater episodes, "Marionettes, Inc.," "The Playground," and "The Crowd." I was thirteen, which seems to be the quintessential age of discovering Bradbury. At the time I also was a fan of Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, both of which had their own connections to Bradbury.

Ray diverted my attention to the infinitely more rewarding realm of the written word. I loved falling into Bradbury's rich metaphors, at a time when my home life was proving to be too stressful to deal with. I remember my thirteen-year-old's favorite parts of Something Wicked as being the scene where Will battles the Dust Witch with his bow-and-arrow, the musical boardwalk where Will and Jim perform nocturnal xylophone dances, and the part where Charles Halloway carves a crescent smile on a bullet to defeat evil ...

After reading Something Wicked, I returned to the small, dusty used bookstore during that summer to buy most of their Bradbury stock and read, in short order, seven more of his books, always relishing the few minutes simply fixating on the title pages where "Bradbury" was typed under a provocative title before continuing on to discover new tales.

The discovery of Bradbury was such a monumental event in my life that there are no words to give it proper justice.

Just a few months later, I met Ray himself at a signing in La Jolla to promote the publication of his then-new mystery Death Is a Lonely Business. When I gushed how much I loved his writing and how it changed my life, he stood up, gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and said, "God bless you!" He was the grandfather of my dearest wishes, my most vivid dreams.

1985 will forever be a monumental year in my life. Bradbury was solely responsible for my falling in love with words, and for my insatiable desire to create with my own realm of words.

[This message has been edited by Nightshade (edited 06-23-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Nightshade (edited 06-23-2002).]

I read Farenheit 451 in school, but I grew to really love his writing when I read Dandelion Wine, which is my favorite of his books.

The first Ray Bradbury book I read was "Fahrenheit 451". It was a gift from my father, I was 11 years. He thought I could relate with the story, because I've always liked books. I liked the way Bradbury tells about the importance of books to keep history alive, and the intimacy we have when we read a book.

I was 9 years old when I read "Something Wicked This Way Comes."

Autumn has never been the same...

...or maybe it was "The Halloween Tree" when I was 8...talk about a double-whammy!!

My first (and most beloved) was a short story called Dark They Were & Golden-Eyed. It struck a chord in me and I'm still looking for it today!

I was in 8th or 9th grade and it was in a huge textbook with other American Literature authors.

I don't even know what collection of short stories it was printed originally printed in.

"Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed" was first collected in "A Medicine for Melancholy" (1959) and then in "S is for Space" (1966). I'm unsure whether it appears in later editions of "The Martian Chronicles," but oddly it did not appear in the original edition.

WOAH! I was pretty scheptical about the "Dark Carnival" thing... but sure enough at Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1887368507/qid=1.../102-3362504-7557737

$150...

Amazing.. O_o

My first Bradbury book was Farenheit 451. Recommended to me by an old boyfriend when I was 12. He may be gone now, but I still have the book and the meories. That was 5 years ago.

Also... I checked E-bay...

type in "Dark Carnival"...

There's one going as 'cheap' as $50... and one as expensive as $200, but it's the original.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1555859731

I wouldn't look at it too long though... even I'M tempted to bid, and I don't have that kind of $$$.

I have the most fresh memories of the first Ray Bradbury book I read. I was 16 back then. It was of course a very, very long time ago. During the Spring of 2002 I watched the movie of F 451. And that's how I was inspired to read the book. It surely changed my life. I've already finished The Illustrated man and I am currently reading Dandelion Wine. Now I am 17 and I certainly have to agree with the fact that there is no writer quite like Ray Bradbury.

[This message has been edited by SharktheFish (edited 08-18-2002).]

[This message has been edited by SharktheFish (edited 08-18-2002).]

quote:

Originally posted by BeirutWedding:
Man, for me the one that definitely started me off, and it surprised me that I didn't see this answer more, is The Martian Chronicles.

And for me, Rocket Summer, in that collection.

After some 60 great postings, it's another's turn.. and so I'll tell how I got interested in Ray's work.
It's 5th grade.
I walk into a drug store near school and walk up to a magazine rack, a little taller than myself.
And there, near the very top edge of a magazine, is ...color I've never seen before...and a quietness suddenly, I had never heard. It was "the moment" of my life! That's it.

Oh, yes, one more thing....
my eyes moved from the top of the cover, down, and there...was this name...
Ray Bradbury.
I immediately said to myself...if I get to know who this guy is, I'll understand what I just experienced.
t took about 20 plus years to discover what that was, but discover I did. The whole event probably took 4 seconds, but changed my life forever.

I got my start on Bradbury's genius in a high school library where I got my hands on a copy of The Martian Chronicles. His works inspired my poetic side and I still find him an invaluable source of wisdom and nurturance, a balm to the grieved soul. I now teach The Martian Chronicles to new generations of high school students. And many of them are as eager to read it as I was all those years ago (well, it has been a little over a couple of decades anyways )
So on this birthday celebration of Ray's, I just want to thank him for giving us all something great to appreciate and think about. If I could do anything at all like what he has done during my own lifetime, I would be greatly appreciative. But that story must yet be written.

If I recall correctly, the first thing I read by Bradbury was probably F451, which I probably read in 6th or 7th grade, followed quickly by Martian Chronicles. I found both of these very, very good, but I don't think I started collecting and obsessing over Bradbury's work untill I read Dandelion Wine a couple years later and it hit me like a bolt of lightning. I thought, and still think that this book is one of the most eloquent and beautiful statements ever concieved in the realm of fiction. After that I started picking Bradbury off the shelf whenever I saw him. I also reread everything I had already read several times over. I still do this, because one of the joys of Ray Bradbury as a writer, is that by virtue of the sheer amount of his short fiction, and by the way that small sections of his larger works often can stand alone quite well, he is the perfect author to revisit, whenever you want.