Never too Late to Read Classics discussion

Ray Bradbury is a hugely popular classic author, especially among fans of science fiction and fantasy, although he wrote across multiple areas within fiction and even left behind some nonfiction. His most widely known fiction work is undoubtedly the dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, and in nonfiction most readers likely know him for Zen in the Art of Writing. Those are prolific titles for Bradbury, but he wrote a massive amount of short stories throughout his lifetime spanning the decades from the 1940s (if not before) through at least the year 2000. (A repeatedly requested short story of Bradbury's for 2022 by NTLTRC members is "Skeletons" found within The October Country.) Due to the sheer volume of short stories out there written by Bradbury, you are invited to escape into those stories with the group throughout the year.

Special note: June 2022 marks 10 years since the world lost Ray Bradbury, a master storyteller.

If you desire to learn more about Bradbury, his life and works: https://raybradbury.com/. Sporadically, I will post information from that website and likely elsewhere as the year progresses.

This will be a casual Bradbury reading discussion thread. Share what short stories you read of his and your thoughts on them. Please be mindful to either hide or avoid spoilers.

Edit: Keep in mind, not every short story written by Bradbury is considered a classic. Anything from 1972 or prior is a classic by NTLTRC's standards.

A list of Bradbury short stories taken from https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/ra...

And the Moon Be Still as Bright
And This Did Dante Do
The Earth Men
Epilogue
The Headpiece
Holiday
The Marriage Mender
The Old Ones
Perchance to Dream
The Town Where No One Got Off
The Crowd (1943)
Doodad (1943)
The Ducker (1943)
The Piper (1943)
R is for Rocket [short story] (1943)
aka King of Gray Spaces
The Scythe (1943)
The Wind (1943)
Bang! You're Dead! (1944)
The Jar (1944)
The Lake (1944)
There was an Old Woman (1944)
Undersea Guardians (1944)
The Big Black and White Game (1945)
Corpse Carnival (1945)
The Dead Man (1945)
Invisible Boy (1945)
The Poems (1945)
Skeleton (1945)
The Tombstone (1945)
A Careful Man Dies (1946)
Chrysalis (1946)
Electrocution (1946)
The Emissary (1946)
The Homecoming [short story] (1946)
I See You Never (1946)
Let's Play 'Poison' (1946)
Lorelei of the Red Mist [short story] (1946) (with Leigh Brackett)
The Million-year Picnic (1946)
The Miracles of Jamie (1946)
The Night (1946)
One Timeless Spring (1946)
Our Timeless Spring (1946)
The Small Assassin [short story] (1946)
The Smiling People (1946)
The Traveller (1946)
The Cistern (1947)
El Dia de Muerte (1947)
aka The Day of Death
The Handler (1947)
Interim (1947)
Jack-in-the-Box (1947)
The Man Upstairs (1947)
The Next in Line (1947)
Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1947)
Uncle Einar (1947)
The Black Ferris (1948)
End of Summer (1948)
Fever Dream (1948)
The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl (1948)
The Long Years (1948)
Mars Is Heaven! (1948)
The October Game (1948)
The Off Season (1948)
Pillar of Fire [short story] (1948)
Powerhouse (1948)
Referent (1948)
The Shape of Things (1948)
aka Tomorrow's Child
The Third Expedition (1948)
Tomorrow's Child (1948)
The Undead Die (1948) (with E Everett Evans)
The Visitor (1948)
The Women (1948)
Changeling (1949)
Dark They Were, and Golden-eyed (1949)
aka The Naming of Names
The Exiles (1949)
aka The Mad Wizards of Mars
The Great Fire (1949)
I, Mars (1949)
Kaleidoscope [short story] (1949)
The Mad Wizards of Mars (1949)
The Man (1949)
Marionettes, Inc. [short story] (1949)
The Martian (1949)
aka Impossible
The Naming of Names (1949)
aka Dark They Were, and Golden-eyed
Night Call, Collect (1949)
The One Who Waits (1949)
The Silent Towns (1949)
The Summer Night (1949)
aka The Spring Night
The Blue Bottle (1950)
aka Death-wish
The City (1950)
aka Purpose
Forever and the Earth [short story] (1950)
The Fox and the Forest (1950)
The Green Morning (1950)
The Highway (1950)
I'll Not Look for Wine (1950)
The Illustrated Man [short story] (1950)
The Locusts (1950)
The Long Rain (1950)
aka Death by Rain
The Luggage Store (1950)
The Musicians (1950)
Night Meeting (1950)
Punishment Without Crime (1950)
The Rocket (1950)
aka Outcast of the Stars
The Settlers (1950)
The Shore (1950)
The Taxpayer (1950)
There Will Come Soft Rains (1950)
Usher II (1950)
aka Carnival of Madness
The Veldt [short story] (1950)
The Watchers (1950)
Way in the Middle of the Air (1950)
The Whole Town's Sleeping (1950)
Ylla (1950)
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1951)
aka The Fog Horn
Embroidery (1951)
The Fire Balloons (1951)
The Fog Horn [short story] (1951)
aka The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
Here There Be Tygers (1951)
The Last Night of the World (1951)
No Particular Night Or Morning (1951)
The Other Foot [short story] (1951)
The Pedestrian (1951)
The Pumpernickel (1951)
The Rocket Man (1951)
The Screaming Woman (1951)
The April Witch [short story] (1952)
En La Noche (1952)
aka Torrid Sacrifice
A Flight of Ravens (1952)
The Gift (1952)
The Great Wide World Over There (1952)
aka Cora and the Great Wide World Over There
A Piece of Wood (1952)
The Smile [short story] (1952)
A Sound of Thunder [short story] (1952)
The Tombling Day (1952)
The Wilderness (1952)
And So Died Riabouchinska (1953)
And the Rock Cried Out (1953)
aka The Millionth Murder
The Flying Machine (1953)
The Garbage Collector (1953)
The Golden Apples of the Sun [short story] (1953)
The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind (1953)
Hail and Farewell (1953)
The Meadow (1953)
The Murderer (1953)
The Playground (1953)
A Scent of Sarsaparilla (1953)
Sun and Shadow (1953)
Time in Thy Flight (1953)
All Summer in a Day (1954)
The Dwarf (1954)
Interval in Sunlight (1954)
It Came from Outer Space [short story] (1954)
The Strawberry Window (1954)
Touched with Fire (1954)
aka Shopping for Death
The Watchful Poker Chip of H Matisse (1954)
The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone (1954)
The Dragon (1955)
The Little Mice (1955)
aka The Mice
The Time Machine (1955)
The Trolley (1955)
The End of the Beginning (1956)
aka Next Stop: the Stars
Icarus Montgolfier Wright (1956)
The Sound of Summer Running (1956)
aka Summer in the Air
The Time of Going Away (1956)
Almost the End of the World (1957)
Dandelion Wine (excerpts) (1957)
The Day it Rained Forever [short story] (1957)
The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit [short story] (1958)
aka The Magic White Suit
In a Season of Calm Weather (1959)
aka The Picasso Summer
A Medicine for Melancholy [short story] (1959)
The Shoreline at Sunset (1959)
aka The Sunset Harp
The Sunset Harp (1959)
aka The Shoreline at Sunset
And the Sailor, Home from the Sea (1960)
aka Forever Voyage
The Best of All Possible Worlds (1960)
Death and the Maiden (1960)
The Drummer Boy of Shiloh (1960)
Some Live Like Lazarus (1960)
aka Very Late in the Evening
The Beggar on O'Connell Bridge (1961)
aka The Beggar on Dublin Bridge
The Illustrated Woman (1961)
Long After Midnight [short story] (1961)
aka The Long-After-Midnight Girl
Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar! (1962)
aka Come Into My Cellar
Come into My Cellar (1962)
aka Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!
Getting Through Sunday Somehow (1962)
aka Tread Lightly to the Music
The Machineries of Joy [short story] (1962)
A Miracle of Rare Device (1962)
Perhaps We Are Going Away (1962)
The Prehistoric Producer (1962)
aka Tyrannosaurus Rex
Tyrannosaurus Rex (1962)
aka The Prehistoric Producer
The Anthem Sprinters [short story] (1963)
aka The Queen's Own Evaders
The Lifework of Juan Diaz (1963)
To the Chicago Abyss (1963)
The Vacation (1963)
The Cold Wind and the Warm (1964)
Heavy-Set (1964)
The Kilimanjaro Device (1965)
Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby's is a Friend of Mine (1966)
aka The Best of Times
The Man in the Rorschach Shirt (1966)
The Lost City of Mars (1967)
The Year the Glop-Monster Won the Golden Lion at Cannes (1967)
Death Warmed Over (1968)
Christus Apollo (1969)
Downwind from Gettysburg (1969)
The Haunting of the New (1969)
Henry the Ninth (1969)
aka A Final Sceptre, a Lasting Crown
I Sing the Body Electric! [short story] (1969)
aka The Beautiful One Is Here
The Inspired Chicken Motel (1969)
aka The Inspired Chicken Bungalow Court
The Terrible Conflagration Up at the Place (1969)
Yes, We'll Gather at the River (1969)
The Messiah (1971)
The Utterly Perfect Murder (1971)
aka My Perfect Murder
Christ, Old Student in a New School (1972)
McGillahee's Brat (1972)
The Parrot Who Met Papa (1972)
Have I Got a Chocolate Bar for You! (1973)
The Wish (1973)
That Old Dog Lying in the Dust (1974)
The Burning Man (1975)
The Better Part of Wisdom (1976)
Darling Adolf (1976)
Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds (1976)
G. B. S. - Mark V (1976)
A Story of Love (1976)
Gotcha! (1978)
The Haunted Computer and the Android Pope [short story] (1980)
The Last Circus (1980)
A Touch of Petulance (1980)
Colonel Stonesteel's Genuine Home-Made Truly Egyptian Mummy (1981)
Besides a Dinosaur, Whatta Ya Wanna Be When You Grow Up? (1983)
Lo, the Dear Daft Dinosaurs! (1983)
What If I Said: the Dinosaur's Not Dead (1983)
Banshee (1984)
The Collector Speaks (1984)
Long After Ecclesiastes (1984)
At Midnight, in the Month of June (1988)
Bless Me, Father, for I Have Sinned (1988)
By the Numbers! (1988)
Come, and Bring Constance! (1988)
I Suppose You Are Wondering Why We Are Here? (1988)
Junior (1988)
Lafayette, Farewell (1988)
The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair (1988)
Long Division (1988)
The Love Affair [short story] (1988)
On the Orient, North (1988)
One for His Lordship, and One for the Road! (1988)
One Night in Your Life (1988)
Promises, Promises (1988)
The Thing at the Top of the Stairs (1988)
The Toynbee Convector [short story] (1988)
Trapdoor (1988)
West of October (1988)
The Young Thing at the Top of the Stairs (1988) Bram Stoker (nominee)
Of Absence, Darkness, Death: Things Which Are Not (1989)
Dogs Think That Every Day Is Christmas [short story] (1990)
Fee Fie Foe Fum (1993)
Last Rites (1994)
No News, or What Killed the Dog? (1994)
Unterseeboot Doktor (1994)
The Very Gentle Murders (1994)
Another Fine Mess (1995)
At the End of the Ninth Year (1995)
Dorian in Excelsis (1995)
Grand Theft (1995)
Once More, Legato (1995)
Quicker than the Eye [short story] (1995)
The Witch Door (1995)
Bug (1996)
Exchange (1996)
The Finnegan (1996)
Free Dirt (1996)
The Ghost in the Machine (1996)
Hopscotch (1996)
The Other Highway (1996)
Remember Sascha? (1996)
That Woman on the Lawn (1996)
Zaharoff/Richter Mark V (1996)
Driving Blind [short story] (1997)
Hello, I Must Be Going (1997)
The Highest Branch on the Tree (1997)
House Divided (1997)
I Wonder What's Become of Sally (1997)
If MGM Is Killed, Who Gets the Lion? (1997)
Madame Et Monsieur Shill (1997)
The Mirror (1997)
Mr Pale (1997)
Night Train to Babylon (1997)
Nothing Changes (1997)
Of What Is Past, or Passing, or to Come II (1997)
Remember Me? (1997)
Someone in the Rain (1997)
That Bird That Comes Out of the Clock (1997)
Thunder in the Morning (1997)
Virgin Resusitas (1997)
A Woman Is a Fast-Moving Picnic (1997)
Pilgrimage (1999)
The Affluence of Despair (2000)
Haunted House (2000) (with Elizabeth Albright)

Wow Samantha! That is an amazing list of work from Bradbury. I had no idea.
Thank you for doing this special read. I think many will enjoy being part of this!!

That’s an amazing list, Samantha. I think I chose badly, as I read Fahrenheit 451 before any of his other books. I thought it was excellent - but his other books have disappointed me by comparison. Perhaps this is the year that I should try again! It will be good to see which books are recommended in this discussion.

“There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950) available in The Martian Chronicles
“The Fog Horn” (1951) available in The Golden Apples of the Sun
“The Night” (1946) available in The Stories of Ray Bradbury
“I Sing the Body Electric” (1969) available in I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
“The Lake” (1944) available in The October Country

These keep coming up in list. Has anyone read any of the above mentioned shorts?

The Veldt is one of the most disturbing stories I've ever read.

Dandelion Wine, on the other hand, is a dreamy and beautiful book-just slightly mysterious in a good way.

Bradbury was a versatile author.

That is amazing!! Did he have time to read? I know he did. He was, I think, self taught.

And here I only posted Bradbury's list of SHORT STORIES. He actually didn't write and publish very many novels. Mostly his work consists of collections of short stories.

I have read many of them, but certainly not all. There are many to choose from.

I read & enjoyed There Will Come Soft Rains. I read Dandelion Wine but, unlike Rosemarie, thought it was mediocre - which probably means I should read it again some time. The Illustrated Man is the book I liked least of his works so far. I have just downloaded The October Country to try some more of his stories.

This is amazing! I definitely have some of these on my shelf so will join in with the ones I find.

I've kept trying to avoid looking at this thread, since there are already so many books to be read this year.....but that list just drew me in, Samantha. (That and his comment that he read poetry every day of his life).

So I can see that I'll have to somehow squeeze in some of his short stories this year.

I've read The Martian Chronicles and a couple of his other books. I'll read some more of these this year.

I went through a phase a zillion years ago where I waded through a lot of Bradbury’s earlier fiction. (After maybe the mid-50s, I became increasingly disenchanted with his stories.) I had a nice time re-visiting The Illustrated Man when the group discussed that collection a few years ago (see here), so I may participate by dusting off some of his earlier collections (e.g., The October Country ).

John, I smiled at how the listed posted here drew you in. Participate as much or little as you like in reading Bradbury's short stories with the group. Stop in when you can. No pressure!

Thank you, Canavan, for linking our group's earlier read of The Illustrated Man.

Personally, I have only read so far: Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man, and The Martian Chronicles. I have a collection of Bradbury stories that I hope to get to this year, at least in part.

Samantha, I admit that the list drew me as well - ha! I have also read the books you’ve read plus a couple more, but that list is daunting! I watched a movie, The Bookshop, a couple years back in which they talk about his books and that motivated me to read the Martian Chronicles. It always comes back to books.

Liane, keep in mind, while the list of his short stories looks daunting, they are all compiled into one collection (book) or another with other stories of his. Great to hear you've been intrigued.

The long list may daunt some, but can also be seen as representing an ocean of Bradburyisms giving a lifetime of enjoyment.

My favourite book is the October Country, with the top 3 stories: Skeleton, The Dwarf, and "The watchful poker chip of H. Matisse". (Even the title is brilliant: A poker chip? How is it watchful? And what has it got to do with Matisse?)

What about those stories make them your top 3 of that collection, Bernard?

A good question! I think together they show Bradbury's mastery of mixing horror and humour, black of course.

The dwarf: Cruelty rather than horror, and great sadness for the dwarf. There is no happy ending, but the optimistic reader could believe that Aimee did find the dwarf and comfort him.

Poker chip: This is mainly written for laughs, with poking fun at intellectuals and the herd mentality. But the things that happen to Garvey are horrible enough.

Skeleton: This is like a Greek tragedy, as it charts the transition of Harris from a normal American life to a terrible fate, via the intervention of Munigant, one of my favourite villains. It even has a moral: don't be a hypochondriac!

I finished reading The October Country. From this collection, “The Crowd” & “Uncle Einar” were the stories I liked best.

Strangely, my copy of October Country does not contain The Crowd. Something to do with British and American editions I suppose.

Bernard said: Strangely, my copy of October Country does not contain The Crowd. Something to do with British and American editions I suppose.

There have been quite a few editions of The October Country since it was first published in 1955. When I was a kid, I’m sure I read one of the Ballantine editions. I imagine that that battered paperback is still moldering away in a box somewhere. I recently started re-reading this weekend the 2013 William Morrow/HarperCollins edition, which follows the contents (but not the story order) of the original. I got through the first five or six entries over the weekend and will post my thoughts on those shortly.

The October Country is a bit of an oddity. The bulk of the stories appeared in Ray Bradbury’s debut collection appearing a decade earlier, 1947’s Dark Carnival , published by Arkham House. Dark Carnival had a very limited run (around 3,000 copies) and quickly went out of print. Presumably for that reason, many (but not all) of the stories in Dark Carnival found their way into The October Country, although many were revised for re-publication. I mention all of this in part because I find those earlier 40s stories of Bradbury to be a bit different than those which started to appear in the 50s and 60s — perhaps a bit darker and more horror-tinged.

From the Dust Returned is a companion book to The October Country.

Bernard wrote: "Strangely, my copy of October Country does not contain The Crowd. Something to do with British and American editions I suppose."

Unless you bought your copy in the US, that’s unlikely Bernard - I live in London! But do read “The Crowd” if you can, I thought it was clever - just the tiniest twist on reality that made it creepy.

Thanks for the extra information about the book, Canavan & Rosemarie.

Thanks Canavan, it is a tangled publishing web that was woven!

It's ok Trisha, I have The Crowd in my collected stories ( volume 1).

From The October Country :

“The Dwarf” ✭✭✭½

(view spoiler)[This is an early Bradbury story that examines the human tendency to focus on our exterior selves at the expense of the inner essence. The construction is perhaps a bit too on the nose at times, as with the character names, Bigelow and Banghart, or the final scene in which Ralph looks into a funhouse mirror to see reflected back his presumably inner self, “a horrid, ugly little man, two feet high, with a pale, squashed face under an ancient straw hat”. It’s interesting that Mr. Bigelow is presented as an unsuccessful pulp writer. Is this how Bradbury saw himself at the time he wrote this story? (hide spoiler)]

“The Next in Line” ✭✭✭½

(view spoiler)[In 1945 Bradbury and a friend visited the Museo de las Momias in Guanajuato. The circumstances surrounding the exhibit encountered was similar to that found in the resulting story — failure to pay an annual “grave tax” would lead to the disinterment of family members and their installation in a museum where people could gawk at them. “Line”, like other stories in the collection, highlights Bradbury’s fascination with and fear of death. (In the introduction to the edition I’m reading, Bradbury insists that the creative act of writing is somehow an effort to fend off death. “I have written every day of my life since my twelfth year. Death has not caught me yet.”) “Line” can almost be looked at as a homage to Edgar Allan Poe’s 1844 tale, “The Premature Burial”, albeit with a bleaker end. Once Marie is exposed to the museum, the thought of her mortality becomes a sort of idée fixe to which she eventually succumbs. (hide spoiler)]

“The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse” ✭✭✭

While I don’t actually dislike this one (it gets a grudging thumbs up), it’s the sort of broad satire that often falls a bit flat for me. (view spoiler)[While Bradbury pokes fun both at the avant-garde — the bashing of which was a quite popular mainstream pursuit during the 50s — and also the stultifying, materialistic outlook that characterized much of American society during that same period, I strongly suspect that the author identifies far more with Garvey than with Pape. (hide spoiler)]

“Skeleton” ✭✭✭✭½

“Skeleton” was one of the earliest Bradbury stories that I read and one of his better ones. (view spoiler)[Re-reading it shortly after also re-visiting “The Next in Line” highlights their similarities, although “Skeleton” is by far the creepier and more elegant of the two. (hide spoiler)]

“The Jar” ✭✭✭✭✭

(view spoiler)[I sometimes find Bradbury’s Luddite tendencies and sentimentality off-putting (especially in his later work), but “The Jar” is a surprisingly clever and cynical take on the insidious nature of religious ideation. It’s one of my personal favorites. (hide spoiler)]

Yes, The Jar is a good one. It was inspired by his visits to carnivals as a boy. Unfortunately we don't have such carnivals here in UK.

From The October Country :

“The Lake” ✭✭✭✭

Somewhere or other, I don’t quite recall the context, Ray Bradbury spoke of “The Lake” as being a sort of breakthrough piece for him — the first really good story he wrote. (view spoiler)[There is just the barest whiff of the supernatural here. It’s far less concerned with traditional tropes about ghosts than it is about the power of youthful love, the passage of time, and (of course) the inevitability of death. (hide spoiler)]

Bernard said (in part): Yes, The Jar is a good one. It was inspired by his visits to carnivals as a boy.

Carnivals, fairs, and the like made a big impression on Ray Bradbury as a young boy, as evidenced by how often they appear in his stories, most notably in his 1962 novel, Something Wicked This Way Comes .

Canavan wrote: "From The October Country:

“The Lake” ✭✭✭✭.."

While growing up in the late 1960, I often read my older brother's copes of two EC comic paperbacks of illustrated versions of Ray Bradbury's October Country and Autumn People. The comic stories had originally appeared in EC comics' Tales of the Crypt in the 1950s.
While my favorite story may have been "Small Assassin," I thought "The Lake" made an impression with its poignant story of childhood memories.

This is a link to the illustrated "The Lake" which can be read if you are willing to play around with the magnifying glass, one hovering over the middle of the page and another at the top of each page. The story consists of 40 panels on 6 pages and is illustrated by the great Joe Orlando.
http://natedsanders.com/joe_orlando_c...

More cheesy than poignant, this is a You Tube video of a 1989 Ray Bradbury Theater TV Episode of the Lake, with appropriately cheesy 1980's background music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbDFy...

Brian wrote (in part): This is a link to the illustrated "The Lake"

Thanks for those links, Brian. I located elsewhere an on-line list of Ray Bradbury stories that EC Comics adapted (authorized or not). The list was longer than I would guessed — some 30 stories.

Thanks Brian, I had never seen a comic version of a SF story before.

From The October Country :

“The Emissary” ✭✭✭✭

“The Emissary is another older Ray Bradbury story culled from Dark Carnival . (view spoiler)[The small town setting, characters, and specifically the way in which the author describes autumn are all very much typical of Bradbury. Although Martin is bedridden, Bradbury initially paints an almost idyllic portrait of his existence, and so I was a bit surprised to discover how dark things finally got. (hide spoiler)]

“Touched with Fire” ✭✭½

I’m not sure what to say about this one. (view spoiler)[A pair of retired insurance salesmen take it upon themselves to warn a rather unpleasant women of her unconscious suicidal proclivities, but in the end find that they are not immune to the same environmental factors that drive her behavior. I suppose I found the ideas expressed by Bradbury rather uninteresting. (hide spoiler)]

I'm excited to know so many members enjoying diving into Bradbury's short stories.

Brian, I appreciate you providing links for his story, The Lake.

Canavan, your extensive thoughts on specific stories as you read them are great and much appreciated. Keep those coming! You never know when you'll convince someone else to read a story based on your assessment of it.

From The October Country :

“The Small Assassin” ✭✭✭✭½

For reasons I find hard to articulate, I tend not to like stories that fall into the “evil children” subgenre. Ray Bradbury’s “The Small Assassin” is an exception. This is yet another story that appeared in Bradbury’s earlier anthology, Dark Carnival . It’s also one of the author’s better-known tales — it’s appeared over the decades in numerous anthologies. (view spoiler)[In the story, Alice Leiber, following a difficult child-birth, seems to be suffering from some form of postpartum depression (although that term was not in general use at that time). She rapidly comes to believe that the baby she has just delivered hates her and is attempting to kill her. Those around her, her husband and her physician, naturally pooh-pooh these notions. Of course, as happens in these kinds of stories, they are proven wrong.

In a number of ways this story makes little sense (how, for example, would a baby understand what the effect of opening a gas jet would be). In spite of such flaws, it’s a fun read with a rather chilling ending. (hide spoiler)]

The Small Assassin was another favorite EC version of a Bradbury story. I found the last panel to be quite memorable. It obviously contains spoilers.

https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/17...

The Ray Bradbury Theater TV version (I haven't seen it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7grBI...

Thanks for the comic scans Brian. As a child, my comics only contained Dan Dare and the Mekon!

From The October Country :

“The Crowd” ✭✭✭✭

In this story Ray Bradbury riffs on the unseemly and voyeuristic tendency for people to gather at the scene of accidents. (view spoiler)[The story benefits from the somewhat ambiguous nature of those in crowd — their origins, precise motivation, etc. The main character’s final moments even hint at a supernatural explanation of sorts. Good stuff. (hide spoiler)]

i've just read Fahrenheit 451 and was absolutely blown away. would love to read his short stories but not sure where to start! any suggestions? :)

I was blown away by Fahrenheit 451, too.
A good place to start would be The Martian Chronicles. I found that it was a good mix of stories connected together in a common theme-Mars.

thanks Rosemarie!

Anytime!

Wow, what a list, it seemed to go on and on. I am currently on a Ray Bradbury kick. I had read A Sound of Thunder years ago and it impressed me, but I didn't look up more... I wasn't that much into short stories I think. I did read Fahrenheit 451 in a group read and enjoyed it, but again, didn't dig for more...
I loved a lot of his stories, enjoying some as audiobooks on youtube while doing chores or running.
I am making my way through The Illustrated man now and a lot of gems are there to find. The Rocket Man touched me. Also liked Marionettes, Inc. and The Long Rain.