I was going to blog about our Teen Summer Reading Club today, but that will have to wait a few minutes.
I just heard some heartbreaking news. Author Ray Bradbury has passed away. He was born in 1920 and wrote some of the most amazing, fascinating and beautiful books you will ever read. He is a personal idol of mine and I'm absolutely devastated that he is no longer with us.
His most famous book, Fahrenheit 451 is a powerful dystopian story of a future where books are outlawed. The Martian Chronicles, a collection of short stories about life of Mars is one the most important science fiction novels ever written, in my opinion.
Many of his books were adapted for film (Fahrenheit 351, The Illustrated Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suite), tv (an episode of The Twilight Zone, his own television show The Ray Bradbury Theater), plays, radio programs, and graphic novels.
If you're interested in reading some of his work for yourself, I suggest:
Fahrenheit 451
The Martian Chronicles
Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Halloween Tree
Zen and the Art of Writing: Essays on Writing and Creativity
Dandelion Wine
He was a brilliant writer and a passionate supporter of writers and libraries. And he is probably one of the most quotable writers ever. Here are a few of my favorites.
“A good night sleep, or a ten minute bawl, or a pint of chocolate ice cream, or all three together, is good medicine.”
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine
“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
“Do you know that books smell like nutmeg or some spice from a foreign land? I loved to smell them when I was a boy. Lord, there were a lot of lovely books once, before we let them go.”
― Ray Bradbury
“Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science, the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction. ”
― Ray Bradbury
“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.”
― Ray Bradbury
“Too late, I found you can't wait to become perfect, you got to go out and fall down and get up with everybody else.”
― Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes
“I am a librarian. I discovered me in the library. I went to find me in the library. Before I fell in love with libraries, I was just a six-year-old boy. The library fueled all of my curiosities, from dinosaurs to ancient Egypt. When I graduated from high school in 1938, I began going to the library three nights a week. I did this every week for almost ten years and finally, in 1947, around the time I got married, I figured I was done. So I graduated from the library when I was twenty-seven. I discovered that the library is the real school.”
― Ray Bradbury
And my all time favorite
“I am madness maddened when it comes to books, writers, and the great granary silos where their wits are stored.”
― Ray Bradbury
He had a long, productive and I believe happy life but I am still sad that I never got the chance to meet him and tell him how much he means to me.
DFTBA,
Sti
His most famous book, Fahrenheit 451 is a powerful dystopian story of a future where books are outlawed. The Martian Chronicles, a collection of short stories about life of Mars is one the most important science fiction novels ever written, in my opinion.
Many of his books were adapted for film (Fahrenheit 351, The Illustrated Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suite), tv (an episode of The Twilight Zone, his own television show The Ray Bradbury Theater), plays, radio programs, and graphic novels.
If you're interested in reading some of his work for yourself, I suggest:
Fahrenheit 451
The Martian Chronicles
Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Halloween Tree
Zen and the Art of Writing: Essays on Writing and Creativity
Dandelion Wine
He was a brilliant writer and a passionate supporter of writers and libraries. And he is probably one of the most quotable writers ever. Here are a few of my favorites.
“A good night sleep, or a ten minute bawl, or a pint of chocolate ice cream, or all three together, is good medicine.”
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine
“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
“Do you know that books smell like nutmeg or some spice from a foreign land? I loved to smell them when I was a boy. Lord, there were a lot of lovely books once, before we let them go.”
― Ray Bradbury
“Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science, the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction. ”
― Ray Bradbury
“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.”
― Ray Bradbury
“Too late, I found you can't wait to become perfect, you got to go out and fall down and get up with everybody else.”
― Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes
“I am a librarian. I discovered me in the library. I went to find me in the library. Before I fell in love with libraries, I was just a six-year-old boy. The library fueled all of my curiosities, from dinosaurs to ancient Egypt. When I graduated from high school in 1938, I began going to the library three nights a week. I did this every week for almost ten years and finally, in 1947, around the time I got married, I figured I was done. So I graduated from the library when I was twenty-seven. I discovered that the library is the real school.”
― Ray Bradbury
And my all time favorite
“I am madness maddened when it comes to books, writers, and the great granary silos where their wits are stored.”
― Ray Bradbury
He had a long, productive and I believe happy life but I am still sad that I never got the chance to meet him and tell him how much he means to me.
DFTBA,
Sti
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