Yes, he was. I just love his books. I wish children these days could know what it felt like in those days as a child, just sitting with a book and losing oneself in the magic. Being still.
Isn’t that the truth! I remember, very fondly, one lazy summer at the beach, when I spent hours and hours in a cool spot swinging in a hammock with book after book! If I wasn’t in the water, I was in the hammock. What a luxury that was! Another summer, visiting my grandmothers ranch in Texas for the summer, if I wasn’t helping with the chores (bottle feeding lambs, feeding chickens), I was perched on the great limb of a Spanish Oak with a book! Pure bliss! I still read every day, without fail.
Bliss! Those lazy days! After chores on a Saturday we'd get our allowance and go down to the Drug Store and buy candy and a book! Id lie on my bed and read and eat candy 😂
Not a care in the world! That’s why it’s so alarming to see people taking away children’s childhoods these days. All the sexualizing and brainwashing, etc. Best thing a parent can do for a child these days is take away their smart devices and let them read, and ride their bikes, and play outside!
I have a wonderful quote from one of my students in juvenile hall about clouds. I will have to resurrect it in an essay. I did put it in an essay quite a while ago. It's so beautiful and profound.
I had a hardcover. Loved it. Shortly after, In 4-H
I sewed a skirt and vest out of a material with blue sky, clouds and seagull on it. I begged my mom for the expensive material . I made picture frames out of the scraps.
I have never read any of his books (not a big fan of sci-fi. One year I came across a speech (YouTube) he spoke about writer’s block. I thoroughly enjoyed his no nonsense approach. He said if you have writer’s block, you’re not writing about what interest you. My father took the TV away from us in high school. Best thing he ever did! No more Charlie’s Angels and Fantasy Island. Lol. Thank you Karen. I’ll be looking him up again. That photo is adorable!
Probably most people have writers block because they just don't like to write period. It's very hard to stare at a blank screen or a blank page and make something of it. The hardest part though, isn't beginning, it's to keep on going to the end!
So true Karen. Have always been fascinated by each writer’s process. Notecards, outlines, typewriter/computer or paper and pen, place of writing. I remember Maya Angelou saying she used to go away to a little hotel to write.
lovely --- reminds me much of Francie in "Tree Grows in Brooklyn" where the library was her "ticket" out of the small-thinkin' pettiness that plagued so many around her an' the drudge of poverty (even when she came home ta the cold water flat--because that book with 'er meant escape!) Matilda too... One of the daughters (fergit which one) in the All of a Kind Family series also... All these young girls spoke ta me so I wuz never ashamed at bein' a bookworm. All the treasured books an' the free libraries were gold--that no amount of money could replace... Today's libraries are a joke--some have fawncy "social rooms" or "game rooms" takin' place of the books AN' they git ridda the good stuff (given away! classic novels, hardbacks!) an' whuts left on their rainbow lgbtq__! shelves for kids an' teens is near-unspeakable, sure ain't "literature!" (an' oh, graphic novels are front n' center on the dis-splays--not that I'm all-against 'em, but I'm not so sure comics need ta be feature presentations)...
Grateful ta learn this--I had no idea the articulate wordsmith Bradbury never made it ta college--but clearly (via Fahrenheit 451) books were very dear ta him indeed.
A truer statement couldn't'a been said:
"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings."
Heinrich Heine
(who wuz, fwiw, a jew who converted ta christianity after seein' the writin' on the wall... as many like him did before an' after---ta save their proverbial... "heinies!")
yup, back in NYC it started when Barns & Ignoble invaded the neibs an' all manner of mom n' pop bookstores I loved closed! (most never ta reopen... used ones too--my favorite kind) An' yup, btw. libraries shuttered or reinvented (even the many NYPL sent many books to the "stacks" in Joisey to open a cafe an' other non-book areas--ugh!)--an' gettin' rid of the good stuff, it's just so sad ta me. My girls (thankfully!) got in plenty of library time but if they have kids... wull I think they'll have a far more diluted (die-looted!) experience if libraries even exist by then!
So I'm doin' exactly whut they tell ya NOT ta do (tee hee)--collect! I'm the anti Marie Condo--while folks de-clutter, we acquire--books! I fix the woebegone ones kinda like some folks rescue cats. Love them books an' cannot have enuf 've 'em!--my daughters too. (A mover's nightmare--we recently live it!) Plus I rue all the good books I gave away back in the day thinkin' we'd always have 'em. Bradbury knew!
Tip--git the hardcovers! I'm findin' that the paperbacks were not acid-free an it's hard ta fix the yellow crumbles that used ta be pages ;-) Hopefully we won't git ta the point where they'll come door ta door ta burn 'em as my "crackpot" may not be quite up ta the task of memorizin' entire volumes at this point in life...
I do not think I have read any of his books..... but if I would choose one, what should that be? Any suggestions? I can handle most fiction but just not too violent and bloody would be better.
This that you shared above, is really excellent. My father was the same. He would go to the library and read all of the books, sometimes he would go to the library and copy information from books, maps and just about any information that intrigued him. He was born in 1923 and grew up in the Netherlands.
My daddy looked a lot like Ray Bradbury too, incredible
Science fiction is my favorite genre but it's hard to find good science fiction. I would say try The Illustrated Man or Fahrenheit 451. I really enjoyed The Martian Chronicles. But if you don't really like science fiction you might not relate to his books.
My older sister introduced me to the library. She was a wonderful big sister.
Lot the most important books can’t be checked out Lawyers don’t even use books anymore all computers more manipulation of history & facts just saying . Of course Lawyers take an oath to the crown anyway legalism our Lord spoke against sad so much history lost as well as not taught purposely sadly . I think now we have become a product of society than society of us if makes sense everything Co-cocked twisted reduced to nothing really people suffer from Illusions than fact of one another governments full greed an psyops of wars communism music fake reality’s now we are fighting for real food an DNA rape of morals a true God creator seems seed of cane to destroy all Gods creation God warned us about these things an he’s coming soon Come Lord Come Amen.
The man was brilliant in so many ways!
Yes, he was. I just love his books. I wish children these days could know what it felt like in those days as a child, just sitting with a book and losing oneself in the magic. Being still.
Isn’t that the truth! I remember, very fondly, one lazy summer at the beach, when I spent hours and hours in a cool spot swinging in a hammock with book after book! If I wasn’t in the water, I was in the hammock. What a luxury that was! Another summer, visiting my grandmothers ranch in Texas for the summer, if I wasn’t helping with the chores (bottle feeding lambs, feeding chickens), I was perched on the great limb of a Spanish Oak with a book! Pure bliss! I still read every day, without fail.
Bliss! Those lazy days! After chores on a Saturday we'd get our allowance and go down to the Drug Store and buy candy and a book! Id lie on my bed and read and eat candy 😂
Not a care in the world! That’s why it’s so alarming to see people taking away children’s childhoods these days. All the sexualizing and brainwashing, etc. Best thing a parent can do for a child these days is take away their smart devices and let them read, and ride their bikes, and play outside!
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons
Isn't that the truth.
Beautiful
Or looking at the natural cloud formations… I miss that.
I have a wonderful quote from one of my students in juvenile hall about clouds. I will have to resurrect it in an essay. I did put it in an essay quite a while ago. It's so beautiful and profound.
I’d read outside when it was warm enough. Jonathan Livingston Seagull had a profound impact. Under a tree in the summer.
Studied for sat’s there too.
I remember when everyone was reading that book!
I had a hardcover. Loved it. Shortly after, In 4-H
I sewed a skirt and vest out of a material with blue sky, clouds and seagull on it. I begged my mom for the expensive material . I made picture frames out of the scraps.
Me too!
I have never read any of his books (not a big fan of sci-fi. One year I came across a speech (YouTube) he spoke about writer’s block. I thoroughly enjoyed his no nonsense approach. He said if you have writer’s block, you’re not writing about what interest you. My father took the TV away from us in high school. Best thing he ever did! No more Charlie’s Angels and Fantasy Island. Lol. Thank you Karen. I’ll be looking him up again. That photo is adorable!
I love that!
Probably most people have writers block because they just don't like to write period. It's very hard to stare at a blank screen or a blank page and make something of it. The hardest part though, isn't beginning, it's to keep on going to the end!
So true Karen. Have always been fascinated by each writer’s process. Notecards, outlines, typewriter/computer or paper and pen, place of writing. I remember Maya Angelou saying she used to go away to a little hotel to write.
I do that a lot!
Lovely!
I like his short story, "The Pedestrian."
if you dont like sci fi read dandelion wine. THe audiobook of it is excellent
toolate, I just ordered it! Thank you for the suggestion. Been having a loungy Sunday, revisiting Ray Bradbury interviews since Karen posted.
lovely --- reminds me much of Francie in "Tree Grows in Brooklyn" where the library was her "ticket" out of the small-thinkin' pettiness that plagued so many around her an' the drudge of poverty (even when she came home ta the cold water flat--because that book with 'er meant escape!) Matilda too... One of the daughters (fergit which one) in the All of a Kind Family series also... All these young girls spoke ta me so I wuz never ashamed at bein' a bookworm. All the treasured books an' the free libraries were gold--that no amount of money could replace... Today's libraries are a joke--some have fawncy "social rooms" or "game rooms" takin' place of the books AN' they git ridda the good stuff (given away! classic novels, hardbacks!) an' whuts left on their rainbow lgbtq__! shelves for kids an' teens is near-unspeakable, sure ain't "literature!" (an' oh, graphic novels are front n' center on the dis-splays--not that I'm all-against 'em, but I'm not so sure comics need ta be feature presentations)...
Grateful ta learn this--I had no idea the articulate wordsmith Bradbury never made it ta college--but clearly (via Fahrenheit 451) books were very dear ta him indeed.
A truer statement couldn't'a been said:
"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings."
Heinrich Heine
(who wuz, fwiw, a jew who converted ta christianity after seein' the writin' on the wall... as many like him did before an' after---ta save their proverbial... "heinies!")
"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings."
Heinrich Heine
A chilling quote! And true. I've noticed it's hard to find a lot of classic books. They aren't being republished. It's very sad.
And don't get me started on libraries! They are also closing a lot of libraries. No more small bookstores. It's very sad.
yup, back in NYC it started when Barns & Ignoble invaded the neibs an' all manner of mom n' pop bookstores I loved closed! (most never ta reopen... used ones too--my favorite kind) An' yup, btw. libraries shuttered or reinvented (even the many NYPL sent many books to the "stacks" in Joisey to open a cafe an' other non-book areas--ugh!)--an' gettin' rid of the good stuff, it's just so sad ta me. My girls (thankfully!) got in plenty of library time but if they have kids... wull I think they'll have a far more diluted (die-looted!) experience if libraries even exist by then!
So I'm doin' exactly whut they tell ya NOT ta do (tee hee)--collect! I'm the anti Marie Condo--while folks de-clutter, we acquire--books! I fix the woebegone ones kinda like some folks rescue cats. Love them books an' cannot have enuf 've 'em!--my daughters too. (A mover's nightmare--we recently live it!) Plus I rue all the good books I gave away back in the day thinkin' we'd always have 'em. Bradbury knew!
Tip--git the hardcovers! I'm findin' that the paperbacks were not acid-free an it's hard ta fix the yellow crumbles that used ta be pages ;-) Hopefully we won't git ta the point where they'll come door ta door ta burn 'em as my "crackpot" may not be quite up ta the task of memorizin' entire volumes at this point in life...
Listening to Dandelion Wine past few weeks!
What a great gift he had and shared! His understanding of the profound dimensions of time alone would be cause for celebration.
I haven't read that one. I will have to get it.
the audiobook is excellent. His forward to the book is itself worth the price of admission
To read it is to know a deep sadness that we are losing our sense of the multidimensionality of time and space.
I do not think I have read any of his books..... but if I would choose one, what should that be? Any suggestions? I can handle most fiction but just not too violent and bloody would be better.
This that you shared above, is really excellent. My father was the same. He would go to the library and read all of the books, sometimes he would go to the library and copy information from books, maps and just about any information that intrigued him. He was born in 1923 and grew up in the Netherlands.
My daddy looked a lot like Ray Bradbury too, incredible
thank you for sharing this today Karen
Science fiction is my favorite genre but it's hard to find good science fiction. I would say try The Illustrated Man or Fahrenheit 451. I really enjoyed The Martian Chronicles. But if you don't really like science fiction you might not relate to his books.
My older sister introduced me to the library. She was a wonderful big sister.
Lot the most important books can’t be checked out Lawyers don’t even use books anymore all computers more manipulation of history & facts just saying . Of course Lawyers take an oath to the crown anyway legalism our Lord spoke against sad so much history lost as well as not taught purposely sadly . I think now we have become a product of society than society of us if makes sense everything Co-cocked twisted reduced to nothing really people suffer from Illusions than fact of one another governments full greed an psyops of wars communism music fake reality’s now we are fighting for real food an DNA rape of morals a true God creator seems seed of cane to destroy all Gods creation God warned us about these things an he’s coming soon Come Lord Come Amen.