All of them! If I had to choose it would come down to "I sing the body electric" or maybe "While the whole town slept". The body electric shows how important self sacrifice can be sometimes. While the other paints a picture of a very real place where time stands still. BrainSparks

Although we didn't get ot read it I thought that The Illustrated Man sounded really good. Bradbury made a really good intro to the book and if the book is just as good I think it would be one of my favorites.

It just has to be "The Crowd" !!
Just the thought of a community of car crash victims gives me the creeps With the increasing number of such victims of today, the thought is highly relevant. I would hereby recommend this story to everone....

The video of this (from Ray Bradbury Theater) is very creepy as well. Something about how the people just show up and then stand around spooks me every time I see it.

“Dandelion Wine", “All Summer In A Day”, “I Sing The Body Electric”, “There Will Come Soft Rains”, “The Anthem Sprinters”, “The Martian” and “The Long Years”. I hate to stop there but I have to stop somewhere.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chapter 31,

Sorry. Here I am again. I have to add just one more to my list, “All On A Summer’s Night”. It’s just to haunting not to include. (And one more still, "The Lake"!!!)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chapter 31,

hmm..too many to list, guess ill give a cool cross section..

death is a lonely business.
the scythe.
from the dust returned.
green shadows,white whale.
the martian chronicles.
farenheight 451.
etc.

these are not my favorites, because just about all are, but a good example of stories that i find great. the images stay with me long after i have read the book.

It's got to be Something Wicked This Way Comes. I absolutely love that book.

Hands down, it has to be "The October Game". I just love that story! And I like to think the idiot who turned on the lights was Mich... just before he sliced his jugular.

There is just something about The Pedestrian that makes me read it over and over and over again without tiring of it...The visions the words create are so amazing. And if you place yoursself into the role of the main character..It is just awesome....

Hmmm, I'm not sure which story is my favorite, but The Crowd has always stuck out from all of his other works. I have always been afraid of car crashes, seeing how I've been in a few and many friends have been lost in them. After I read that story my anxiety about car crashes is heightened to the extreme, and I am constantly looking around for familiar faces that might be in The Crowd. This sounds quite silly, and in theory IS quite silly, but I suppose that is why they are called phobias. Ray Bradbury does an excellent job of making people face any phobias they may have, be it a fear of attics, death, or, in my case, car accidents.
I also really enjoy The Veldt and Usher II. Now that I think about it, every Ray Bradbury story is my favorite. He is, after all, the master!

Dandelion Wine and The Halloween Tree

Absolutely, completely and always "In a Season of Calm Weather" from "The Day it Rained Forever". Just breathtaking.

There are (many!) certain classics, but really it depends on my mood.

Well, above and beyond, I guess it comes down to Fahrenheit 4-5-1 for me. The themes, imagery, awakening, vision, warnings, classic characters, suspense, and cutting plot are all held within this "book of books" by RB.

His others are magnificent and pressed within my literary and personal view of things and never slighted, but F451 challenges me on a different level. So, this observation...maybe just a little to entertain a few of you!

I see MUCH of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, within the story of Fahrenheit 451. I don't know if this has ever been commented on here before, or if RB has alluded to it in any articles.

Montag is like a (non-tragic) young prince in waiting. He hopes for a society (kingdom) of books and learning that should be (his). Consider the obstacles that Beatty (Claudius, the conniving uncle/ father) has confronted him with. The chief twists and turns events and facts so Montag doesn't know if he is coming or going. His typical method in relations is through devious plots and traps (King Claudius to the "t").

The femme-fatale is young Clarisse, a major influence but rarely seen (and thus sweet, sweet Ophelia). How about the wicked wife of Mildred, watching the White Clown rather than loving her husband? (Gertrude, a compromised mother - all caught up in the maze of lies laid down by a murderous husband/brother-in-law)

So, the future from our hero Montag (like Hamlet) is stolen right from under his nose. Some parallels may follow different planes, of course, but are there nonetheless, I find.

As for "The play within the play," Faber talks Montag into a yet unseen, but soon to be vital revelation. He struggles to have Beatty exposed for what he really is (so too, the Uncle-father a rat in kings clothing). The death of the antagonist is at the hands of each protagonist, though both fell short of the ideal outcome they had desired.

I could go on, but will defer to others who may have thoughts or information on the author's influences. Well, maybe one more, the devastating dog bites bring down the hero (and the sword tainted in poison denies Hamlet his just reward).

I know that RB worked on the concepts in 451 starting with his earliest metaphors and then into "Firemen" s.s. in 1950. Shakespeare is mentioned on numerous occasions in F451.

What thinkest thou, Horatio? Is there really something rotten in Denmark?