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“. . . one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have to understand things for them to be.”

– Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle In Time.

When I was a kid, growing up in the 60’s, I didn’t read many children’s books. P.D. Eastman, of course, whom I liked better than Suess, some of the Little Golden Books, and later, the Hardy Boys. Frank and Joe, I think their names were. I have no memory of either of my parents reading to me, ever. It may have happened, must have happened, but I can’t recall it. I was the youngest of seven, born in 1961, and bed time wasn’t the hour-long ritual it’s become for so many kids today, with reading and talking and snuggling and sharing, etc. When I was a kid, it was more like, “Good night. And don’t forget to brush your teeth.”

The words that formed my reading habit came from the sports pages of The New York Daily News and The Long Island Press. I still maintain that my writing style, such as it is, was probably more influenced by Dick Young than anybody else: I faithfully read his column for many (formative) years. I also remember, as I reached my middle grade period, talking to my older brothers and sisters about books. They were readers, all of them, and loved Bradbury and Vonnegut and Brautigan and Robbins, so I picked up those books. I have a vivid recollection of writing a book report in 7th grade on any book I wanted. I chose Anthem by Ayn Rand, probably because it was a slendest paperback on the family bookshelf.

I also read sports biographies, being an ex-boy, and still hold a special fondness for Go Up for Glory Bill Russell. It hit me like a thunderbolt, and for a time I was determined to grow into a very tall black man who’d willingly pass up a shot in order to set a fierce pick and roll into the paint, looking for the put-back.

Anyway, I basically missed the entire canon of children’s literature. I didn’t read Where the Wild Things Are until I worked at Scholastic as a junior copywriter in 1985, hauling in $12,500 a year, thank you very much. These days I still try to fill in the holes, though I’ll admit it: I love adult literature. After all, I’m an adult. Those are the books that lit my fuse. I am not giving up my grown-up books.

Now, about A Wrinkle In Time. I liked it. Some parts — the first few chapters, especially — I really, really admired. Other parts — after the tessering, and into the full-blown fantasy — I didn’t care for as much. It reminded me of the original Star Trek series (my brothers loved Star Trek and we watched it religiously). In sum: Dated, kind of corny, a little obvious, but entertaining and fast-paced and intelligent and provocative, too. There’s a quality to the book, a be

Wish you could study writing Ray Bradbury, Penelope Lively or Clive Cussler? SocialTimes introduced us to YouTube EDU, a massive collection of free educational videos from Harvard, Yale, MIT, University of California and other great universities.

Here’s more from SocialTimes: ” YouTube’s education channel, offers videos of courses at top schools around the globe in categories ranging from arts and humanities to education, business and law, mathematics, science, medicine, languages and more.”

We’ve rounded up five useful courses for all the writers, readers and publishing folks in the audience.

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Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation by Ray Bradbury (Illustrated by Tim Hamilton)

Reviewed by: Chris Singer

About the author:

Ray Bradbury is one of those rare individuals whose writing has changed the way people think. His more than five hundred published works — short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, television scripts, and verse — exemplify the American imagination at its most creative.

Once read, his words are never forgotten. His best-known and most beloved books, THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, FAHRENHEIT 451 and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, are masterworks that readers carry with them over a lifetime. His timeless, constant appeal to audiences young and old has proven him to be one of the truly classic authors of the 20th Century — and the 21st.

In recognition of his stature in the world of literature and the impact he has had on so many for so many years, Bradbury was awarded the National Book Foundation’s 2000 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, an the National Medal of Arts in 2004.

About the illustrator:

Tim Hamilton has produced art for The New York Times Book Review, Cicada magazine, King Features, BOOM Studios, Mad Magazine, and ACT-I-VATE. He most recently adapted Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island into a graphic novel for Puffin Graphics.

About the book:

“Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner, burn ’em to ashes, then burn the ashes.” For Guy Montag, a career fireman for whom kerosene is perfume, this is not just an official slogan. It is a mantra, a duty, a way of life in a tightly monitored world where thinking is dangerous and books are forbidden.

In 1953, Ray Bradbury envisioned one of the world’s most unforgettable dystopian futures, and in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the artist Tim Hamilton translates this frightening modern masterpiece into a gorgeously imagined graphic novel. As could only occur with Bradbury’s full cooperation in this authorized adaptation, Hamilton has created a striking work of art that uniquely captures Montag’s awakening to the evil of government-controlled thought and the inestimable value of philosophy, theology, and literature.

Including an original foreword by Ray Bradbury and fully depicting the brilliance and force of his canonic and beloved masterwork, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is an exceptional, haunting work of graphic literature.

My take on the book:

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is one of my favorite books and when I saw there was a graphic novel version I wanted to review it here on Book Dads.

I don’t think it matters if this is your first introduction to 451 or if you’re already a fan of the novel. Either way, you’re going to really enjoy this adaptation. For those familiar with the story, the adaptation stays

heyoscarwilde:

Bradbury.

Artwork by Lou Romano | via louromano.blogspot.com

Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, officially turns 90 on August 22, 2010. This Friday, fans of Bradbury will ask Los Angeles City Council to declare Aug. 22-28 Ray Bradbury Week. While Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, he moved to Los Angeles in 1934, where he has lived since that time.

A number of celebrations are being planned, including a tribute at the Mystery and Imagination Bookstore, a profile in the Writers Guild magazine, an exhibit of Bradbury books in the public library, a school production of a play based on the novel, an evening of screening TV shows based on Bradbury's writings, and a screening of the Fahrenheit 451 movie which will include an interview with Hugh Hefner and Ray Bradbury.

Bradbury's works include Something Wicked this Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, and Fahrenheit 451. He has also been a writer on an astounding 75 films, many of them adaptations of his novels and short stories. His body of work has earned him the National Medal of the Arts and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Ray Bradbury Week in Los Angeles is on Facebook for anyone interested in learning more. (You must have a Facebook account to log in.)

A self-taught writer and recipient of the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, Ray Bradbury is best known to readers for his classic novel, Fahrenheit 451.He says he discovered himself in the library where, as a child, he spent long days every summer immersing himself in books.Since those childhood years, he’s written more than fifty novels, including Dandelion Wine,

Haven't heard of the Inkygirl Wordcount Challenge? The goal of this challenge is to help provide goal-oriented inspiration, with flexibility to avoid giving up in frustration. Please click on any of the buttons above for more info.

Ray Bradbury quote on writing:

"You must write every single day of your life... You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads... may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world."
— Ray Bradbury

So how did you all do this past week? Good luck with your writing, all!





The Times Online has printed an article written by author Neil Gaiman entitled, "Neil Gaiman: Ray Bradbury Made Me Want to Write."

In it, Gaiman reminisces about the Bradbury, the builder of dreams, as he reviews the many Bradbury volumes he has read and how they have influenced him and shaped the world. Gaiman refers to Bradbury as "The man who gave us a future to fear, one without stories, without books," an obvious reference to Fahrenheit 451.

Bradbury at his best really was as good as we thought he was. He built so much, and made it his. So when the wind blows the fallen autumn leaves across the road in a riot of flame and gold, or when I see a green field in summer carpeted by yellow dandelions, or when, in winter, I close myself off from the cold and write in a room with a TV screen as big as a wall, I think of Ray Bradbury . . .

Switch On The Night

Written by Ray Bradbury

Pictures by Leo and Diane Dillon

Umbrella Books, 1993

ISBN: 0-394-80486-4

I'm back from Paperback Horror for today, because I wanted to share this very special book with you guys. It deals with one of my favourite things - the Dark. There was a time (long ago) when I really didn't like the dark. It was too mysterious, too silent, too...well, dark. 

In Switch On The Night, Bradbury introduces us to a little boy who doesn't like the dark. He likes lanterns and lamps and torches and tapers - every implement you can think of that produces light. One night while his father is away on a business trip and his mother goes to bed early, he

I read this about Ray Bradbury in the New York Times this morning:


His most famous novel, Fahrenheit 451...was written on a pay typewriter in the basement of the UCLA library."


That is amazing, because *I* have written on a pay typewriter in the basement of the UCLA library!

What a close connection I suddenly feel to Mr. Bradbury!

OK, I wasn't there anywhere near the same time he was. And I was pounding away on some Psych term paper and not a novel of vast influence.

Come to think of it... the typewriters were probably not even the same ones, since his was most likely a manual model and mine was an IBM Selectric that literally chugged when you dropped a quarter in the slot.

It might have been the same chair. Same 3 cubic feet of space? Same room? Someone please tell me it was the same room.

Oh well. I'm hereby claiming to have gotten a whiff of his literary karma, and the beauty of it is:

You can't prove me wrong.

A Publishers Weekly article by Calvin Reid entitled "New Look for Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'" reports that Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 will soon be adapted to be published as a graphic novel. Artist Tim Hamilton has recreated this science fiction classic with input from Ray Bradbury. It will be released both in hardcover and paperback and will be marketed during the American Library Association's Banned Books Week in September of 2009. Playboy magazine which first ran the original serial in 1954 has purchased the serial rights. The publisher also plans to adapt graphic novels of Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way Comes. An e-book version of the graphic edition will be available for the iPhone.

The Banned Book Challenge continues until June 30. Set a goal and read with us.

Libraries can change lives. All of us here at First Book know this, and so does literary icon Ray Bradbury.

who recently wrote a fantastic Op/Ed piece in the Long Beach Press-Telegram on the potential closing of the Main Library in Long Beach, California.

Bradbury, who clearly proves that he’s still as feisty as ever at the age of 88, writes in his letter:

“City Hall decisions will remove access to over 1.5 million books from one square mile of the city! Is Long Beach at war with the printed word and books? …Tell City Hall NO to the threatened closure! Long Beach residents and children deserve nothing less than access to a downtown library with ready access to books and programs to help them achieve their goals and aspirations.”

Go get ‘em, Ray! We couldn’t agree more.

By the way — did you know that not only is Bradbury one of the world’s most beloved sci-fi writers, he also has an asteroid named in his honor, “9766 Bradbury,” along with a crater on the moon called “Dandelion Crater” named after his novel, Dandelion Wine?

We could only hope to be so cool!

P.S. We also know a few other serious Bradbury fans… check out the authors whose lives were influenced by this amazing writer on First Book’s What Book Got You Hooked? site! (Hint: their last names start with “A” and “S”…)

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury depicts firemen burning books. It is what they do. In a story that is disconcerting for those of us who believe in the right of freedom to read, MSNBC reports that firefighters are being trained by Homeland Security in the USA in a test program. They are being trained to look for illegal materials and report people who may be "hostile, uncooperative or expressing hate or discontent with the United States."

While law enforcement officials have stringent rules that control their access to private property, fire fighters have access in order to make inspections for the purposes of preventing fires. The ACLU is concerned about the implications of this program with regard to first amendment issues.

According to New York City Fire Chief Salvatore Cassano, information related to terrorism has been passed on from firefighters to law enforcement since the program began three years ago.

It would be interesting to see what kind of information officials are collecting that they believe relates to terrorism and to what degree one needs to be "discontent" before one is reported to the government.

This would be great fodder for a dystopian novel. Oh, wait....

MTV Movies Blog reports that Tom Hanks is showing great interest in starring as Guy Montag, the “fireman” in Fahrenheit 451.