Ray Bradbury books

Fahrenheit 451 (2013)

A classic I never read in school, I listened to this audio recording. Guy Montag is a fireman. But this is set in the far future and a fireman is not what we think - he sets fires, specifically, he burns books. Society has deemed books dangerous because the ideas contained in them threaten the...

فهرنهايت 451 (2013)

Tim Robbins gave an excellent narration of this "classic" work of dystopian fiction, bringing even more life to Bradbury's powerful and poetic prose. While the premise of the dystopian society is a bit weak (an explanation is provided about why books are banned, but the specifics are still pretty...

A Sound of Thunder (2000)

One of my earliest memories of reading science fiction in the short story format.This was one of those stories, considered a sci-fi classic that just captivated me completely. After reading this I progressed on to Asimov, Simak, Dick, Herbert and others and didn't look back. As I look back now ...

The Playground (1953)

Already being a Bradbury fan, I immediately purchased this upon seeing it in the Kindle Singles store. I found myself agreeing with much of what the main character said. There is a quiet sense of dread throughout that only amplified the further I read, despite feeling like I knew where it was ult...

The Last Night of the World (2012)

I haven't read much of anything by Ray Bradbury, but from what I've heard before and now, from reading "The Last Night of the World," I'm beginning to think I should really check him out.This short story was cute, terrifying, loving and depressing all at once. It's the story of a husband and wife...

Farewell Summer (2006)

С ночным боем часов на городской ратуше семидесятилетний старик беседует со своей последней эрекцией, а к тому времени, как часы завершают третий удар, уже знакомый мне по первой книге Дуглас встречается со своей первой. "Мы ещё встретимся, дружок? Конечно, утром я проснусь раньше тебя." Теперь п...

A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories (2005)

This book of short stories was hit or miss for me, though more hit than miss, especially the scifi stories.The opening story, "The Fog Horn," was haunting and beautiful. I really enjoyed it, though that's not too surprising since it involved the sea.One day many years ago a man walked along and s...

Dandelion Wine (2000)

In creative writing classes the instructor will often remind the novice that it is difficult to write about something that is close to an author. The subject becomes too personal, too emotional; the author cannot distance him/herself from the material enough to effectively depict the idea. So too...

The Martian Chronicles (1984)

Though the 16 stories that comprise this collection are fitted into a super-imposed chronological framework, and are joined by some short units of bridging material, they were originally composed as stand-alones, not part of any larger unity. Bradbury was primarily a writer of short fiction, the...

The Illustrated Man (2002)

As a newly-minted high school reading teacher, my introductory book to spoon-feed to the young'ns was Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. It was a really good one to start with, as it had a fairly simple and uncomplicated storyline, a small cast of characters, and fairly well-defined themes and litera...

Long After Midnight (2000)

Not long ago, in a moment of minor personal crisis, I found myself hungering after the literary equivalent of comfort food. Something familiar, but not too familiar—not familiar to the point of boredom. Yet something that would give me a predictably pleasant lift.Wandering our basement library (w...

Driving Blind (1998)

Adam C. Zern shares his thoughts . . . "Due to so many books being written each year and by so many different authors, I often find myself shying away from reading multiple books by the same author. I think there is value in spending precious reading time with a diversified group of authors beca...

From the Dust Returned (2002)

Нека ви запозная с една великолепна трилогия, невидяла досега бял свят в България, но искрено се надявам някой да се позаинтересува и разпространи идеята за страхотно класическо фентъзи, разглеждащо драконите от съвършено различна гледна точка, виждаща в тях дуално дивите животни на първите създа...

Something Wicked This Way Comes (2006)

I don't give Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" praise lightly. This was a book I first read many years ago in junior high, back when I used to take some of my lunch breaks and spend reading in the library. The librarian never bothered me, and I read as many books as I could fit i...

One More for the Road (2002)

This was an interesting, for Bradbury, mix of stories as most of them are general fiction. There is only one horror tale and only a few lie under the science fiction and/or fantasy category and they are light in that regard. What we do get is a lot of stories where religion pops up, cinema/movies...

The Dark Descent (1997)

I am SO looking forward to this tome. I found it in a outlet store for $6 and grabbed it as fast as I could. Stories from some of my favorites (Harlan Ellison's "Whimper of Whipped Dogs" plus a couple from Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, HP Lovecraft and one from Philip K. Dick) as well as from ...

The Halloween Tree (1999)

3 spine-tingling stars!!Although The Halloween Tree is a perfect read for this holiday, I was still left slightly disappointed. I picked up this book on the hopes that it would frighten the living daylights out of me or at the very least have me shaking like a leaf. Sadly, that wasn’t the case he...

The October Country (1999)

One of the first books I ever read, and one of the reasons I still read. I found some of the other reviews dismaying (poor dialogue?, silly concepts?, antique writing style? - has the world and the people in it really changed that much? Have people lost their hearts? Perhaps, they've just never...

Machineries of Joy (1966)

Though not Ray Bradbury’s most famous collection, and not containing his most famous stories, “The Machineries of Joy” is nonetheless a masterclass in short story writing; a virtuoso demonstration finding the haunting and beautiful and disturbing and sublime just underneath the surface of the mun...

Duel: Terror Stories (2003)

Remember that murderous semi chasing Dennis Weaver down a lonely stretch of desert highway?Duel, Steven Spielberg's acclaimed first film, was adapted by Richard Matheson from his unforgettable story of the same name.But "Duel" is only one of the classic suspense tales in this outstanding collecti...

R Is for Rocket (1984)

Ο Ray Bradbury – γνωστότερος για το έργο του Φαρενάιτ 451 [Fahrenheit 451] – έγραψε τα συγκεκριμένα διηγήματα την δεκαετία του 50 (και κάποια τη δεκαετία του 40) όταν στην Αμερική αναπτυσσόταν με ραγδαίους ρυθμούς η τεχνολογία αλλά και η φιλολογία που αφορούσε τα διαστημόπλοια (πυραύλους). Έτσι, ...

The Cat's Pajamas (2005)

From the winner of the National Book Foundations' 2000 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters comes a "sweet, funny . . . thought–provoking" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) collection of short stories.As in his most recent major fiction collections, One More for the Road (1999) and...

Let's All Kill Constance (2003)

Well....you might find Ray Bradbury's Let's All Kill Constance shelved at your local library or bookstore under "mystery" but let me tell you, this ain't your usual detective novel. This is Bradbury channeling Faulkner or some other stream-of-consciousness writer and throwing all his lovely langu...

Ahmed and the Oblivion Machines: A Fable (1998)

Sometimes it’s an author’s greatest strengths that can lead them into trouble. Ray Bradbury, for instance, is one of the most prolific and poetic writers ever to grace the page, his prose often beautiful and flowing. But sometimes, as in the case of his childrens’ book AHMED AND THE OBLIVION MA...

S is for Space (1972)

A few years ago, I reread The Martian Chronicles, and wished I hadn't, because the best book in the world when you're in seventh grade isn't necessarily the best book in the world when you're in your forties. However, with Bradbury's death the other day, and all the tributes I've been seeing, I'...

A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories (1998)

Okay, now we're getting somewhere. More stories from Mars - presumably ones that didn't flow well in The Martian Chronicles, or perhaps they were written after that, as this book was published after that book. I'm trying to read them chronologically but each book is short stories published in va...

The Toynbee Convector (1989)

Mettiamola così, ragazzo: la vita è uno spettacolo di magia, o lo sarebbe se la gente non dormisse in piedi.Una delle cose più difficili è dare un voto ad una raccolta di racconti. Perché è ovvio che ci saranno quelli che amerai e quelli che invece proprio no, non fanno per te. Naturalmente ci so...

Fancies and Goodnights (2003)

John Collier's edgy, sardonic tales are works of rare wit, curious insight, and scary implication. They stand out as one of the pinnacles in the critically neglected but perennially popular tradition of weird writing that includes E.T.A. Hoffmann and Charles Dickens as well as more recent masters...

Quicker Than the Eye (1996)

"'Have I ever lied to you?' 'Many times!' 'But' - he shrugged - 'little white ones.'" (4)..."'Have I ever lied to you?' 'Often. But,' I added, 'little white ones.'" (14)"'...Our faces, don't you think? Smiles that made our jaws ache. We were exploding. They got the concussion.'" (35)"The carni...

A Graveyard for Lunatics: Another Tale of Two Cities (2001)

Hm. Well this is weird because Bradbury is a genius and I loved all of the books and short stories by him I've read to date, so it feels weird to say this, but... the book just wasn't very good. Ray Bradbury wrote a book that was not very good. Weird.The positive things I can say about it are tha...

Twice 22: The Golden Apples of the Sun / A Medicine for Melancholy (2015)

I didn't care much for this compilation. There was nothing that tied the stories together, so they were just a random assortment. I usually really enjoy Bradbury's short stories because he gives the reader just enough information and story. In other Bradbury compendia, he has tied the stories ...

The Day It Rained Forever (1988)

I hadn't before thought of Ray Bradbury as such a good writer -- a good ideas person, but I hadn't thought of his stories as well-crafted, tight, polished things. These ones definitely are: they held me spellbound; I read them all at once. There's the magic of the ordinary and the everydayness of...

Where Robot Mice & Robot Men Run Round in Robot Towns (1977)

Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales (2005)

For more than sixty years, the imagination of Ray Bradbury has opened doors into remarkable places, ushering us across unexplored territories of the heart and mind while leading us inexorably toward a profound understanding of ourselves and the universe we inhabit. In this landmark volume, Americ...

(1972) The Halloween Tree

The sky was yelled clean by boys occupying at least eight of those brooms at once.     And what with changing their cries of fear to cries of delight, the boys almost forgot to look or listen for Pipkin, similarly sailed off among island clouds.     “This w...

Now and Forever

said Nef. “Now?” said Cardiff. “I must prove that I do not wish to kill the bearer of bad news. Come.” And she led him across the lawn where the picnic blankets still lay as after a storm, tossed and half-furled, and some few dogs had arrived with the army ants while several cats waited for the b...

The Fireman

Only a voice whispered from the ceiling: "One thirty-five a.m. Thursday morning, October 4th, 2052, A.D.... One forty a.m.... one fifty..."  Mr. Montag sat stiffly among the other firemen in the fire house, heard the voice-clock mourn out the cold hour and the cold year, and shivered.  The other ...

The Lost Bradbury (2010)

was first published in 1940 in Polaris, a piece that editors identified as one of the few serious fantasies that Bradbury published before he came to discover his own writing style. It was later on included in the 1973 British anthology of Horrors in Hiding.     * * * * Before...

A Pleasure to Burn

He produced the newspaper with a dry whack as he slipped his coat into the closet like an abandoned ghost and sailed through the house, scanning the news, his nose guessing at the identity of supper, talking over his shoulder, his wife following. There was still a faint scent of the train and the...

The Golden Apples of the Sun (2013)

Out there in the cold water, far from land, we waited every night for the coming of the fog, and it came, and we oiled the brass machinery and lit the fog light up in the stone tower. Feeling like two birds in the gray sky, McDunn and I sent the light touching out, red, then white, then red again...

Martian Chronicles (2012)

They left their suppers or their washing up or their dressing for the show and they came out upon their now-not-quite-as-new porches and watched the green star of Earth there. It was a move without conscious effort; they all did it, to help them understand the news they had heard on the radio a m...

Death Is a Lonely Business

It had fog almost every night and along the shore the moaning of the oil well machinery and the slap of dark water in the canals and the hiss of sand against the windows of your house when the wind came up and sang among the open places and along the empty walks.     Those wer...

Dark Carnival

    I ran up on the beach.         Mamma swabbed me with a furry towel. 'Stand there and dry,' she said.         I stood there, watching the sun take away the water beads on my arms. I replaced them with goose-pimples.         'My, there...

The Stories of Ray Bradbury

The gravity of the earth was drawn to a focus here in this single basement room—a gravity so immense that it pulled their faces down, bent their mouths at the corners and drained their cheeks. Their hands hung weighted and their feet were planted so they could not move without seeming to walk und...

I Sing the Body Electric

G.B.S.—Mark V “Charlie! Where you going?” Members of the rocket crew, passing, called. Charles Willis did not answer. He took the vacuum tube down through the friendly humming bowels of the spaceship. He fell, thinking: This is the grand hour. “Chuck! Where traveling?” someone called. To meet som...

One More Body in the Pool

I took a deep breath, held it, and at last said. “Scottie?” There was no motion beneath the paper. I took another breath and said, “Mr. Fitzgerald?” At last the paper drifted aside and the young old man underneath it opened his eyes. His face was familiar and young and terribly haunted. The cheek...

A Graveyard for Lunatics

As I ran to fetch my 8-millimeter projector, the phone rang.     After the twelfth ring I snatched it up.     “Well?” said Peg. “How come you stood there for twelve rings with your hand on the phone?” “God, women’s intuition.” “What’s up? Who disappeared? W...

Ray Bradbury Stories, Volume 1

As the twelfth depot was left behind, the older of the two men muttered, ‘Idiot, Idiot!’ under his breath.     ‘What?’ The younger man glanced up from his Times.     The old man nodded bleakly. ‘Did you see that damn fool rush off just now, stumbling after ...

Ray Bradbury Stories, Volume 1

A voice cried, ‘Shut it!’ It was like a blow in the face. He jumped through. The door banged. He cursed himself quietly. The voice, with dreadful patience, intoned, ‘Jesus. You Terwilliger?’ ‘Yes,’ said Terwilliger. A faint ghost of screen haunted the dark theater wall to his right. To his left, ...

We'll Always Have Paris

‘Come in,’ she said to his startled face. ‘Annie’s out fetchin’ supper. Set down.’ ‘But who—’ He looked at her.     ‘I’m Ma Perkins.’ She laughed, rocking. It was not a rocking chair, but somehow she imparted the sense of rocking to it. Tiller felt giddy. ‘Just call me Ma,’ sh...

Bradbury Stories

Backfire, he thought. No. Gun. A moment later he heard the great lift and drop of voices like an ocean surprised by a landfall which stopped it dead. A door banged. Feet ran. An usher burst through his office door, glanced swiftly about as if blind, his face pale, his mouth trying words that woul...