# Your favorite Ray Bradbury story? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [August 4, 2023, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-ray-bradbury-story/988048 "2023-08-04T15:09:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-ray-bradbury-story/988048/41 "2023-08-07T14:51:04Z")
Well, y’all have persuaded me to go order some collections of Bradbury’s short stories as my aging paperback library has become almost unreadable and now I want to get back into them. Sigh… The to-be-read pile grows ever higher… ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-ray-bradbury-story/988048/42 "2023-08-07T16:58:59Z")
The October Game. Absolutely chilling last line. Zero Hour. Ditto. I was very young when I read The Martian Chronicles and it took a while till I realized they were all different stories about Mars and Martians. They were all haunting, not unlike the works of Shirley Jackson. The last story, where the family looked into the water at their reflections and saw…Martians. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-ray-bradbury-story/988048/43 "2023-08-07T17:14:48Z")
I can’t say why I like _Kaleidoscope_ so much, but something about it resonates with me. > **[Kaleidoscope by Ray Bradbury | Scary For Kids](https://www.scaryforkids.com/kaleidoscope-by-ray-bradbury/)** > > Kaleidoscope by Ray Bradbury The first concussion cut the rocket up the side with a giant can opener. The men were thrown into space like a dozen wriggling silverfish. They were scattered into a dark sea; and the ship, in a million pieces, went on,... ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-ray-bradbury-story/988048/44 "2023-08-08T01:25:05Z")
Yes, from _The Illustrated Man,_ isn’t it? With (as is often the case with Bradbury) the perfect last line. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-ray-bradbury-story/988048/45 "2023-08-08T02:16:46Z")
Wow–once again, as with “Obstinate Uncle Otis,” which we discussed recently, I remember chunks of this story from when I read it as a young teenager. Including the basic premise, but mostly the entire coda almost word for word, right down to the repeated “Make a wish” from the mother and the fact that this was happening in Illinois. I had completely forgotten, however, the details and the thoughts of the main character, Hollis. So I did not remember how very fitting–and in some ways, marvelous–it was that the boy saw the beautiful shooting star. Funny how you forget things (he says again). The story now makes a lot more sense than it did when I’d forgotten about Hollis’s worries, and as @Elendil_s_Heir notes, it’s a really lovely ending. Thanks for sharing the story. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-ray-bradbury-story/988048/46 "2023-08-08T18:49:56Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I can’t name a favorite story because his writing is what I find so impressive and memorable instead of character and plot details. Just for fun I often pull sentences at random from his works and then sigh because I’ll never be as good as even a random Bradbury sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-ray-bradbury-story/988048/47 "2023-08-08T21:09:50Z")
Well, y’all have given me a bunch of new stories to read. As of now, though, “The Picasso Summer” is not just my favorite Bradbury story, but my favorite short story of all time. I was lucky enough to be given the chance to meet him, and I thanked him for writing it. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-ray-bradbury-story/988048/48 "2023-08-08T21:14:42Z")
I’ve read at least 2,000 pages of Ray Bradbury! And I’ve never heard of that one. Or some others mentioned here. He was so _prolific._ ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-ray-bradbury-story/988048/49 "2023-08-08T21:43:52Z")
Hmm. I just looked it up, and apparently it was called “In the Season of Calm Weather.” In 1969, he adapted it into an unsuccessful film called _The Picasso Summer_. But I’m certain it was called “The Picasso Summer” in the anthology in which I read it. And given that I had no idea there even was a film, I couldn’t have come up with that title any other way. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2023, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-ray-bradbury-story/988048/50 "2023-08-23T14:12:44Z")
I am shook. I remember reading “All Summer in a Day” in school and did not realize it was a Bradbury story! I had thought I discovered Bradbury as an adult, when I read _Fahrenheit 451_ (and then _Dandelion Wine_, _Something Wicked This Way Comes_, and _The Martian Chronicles_). Anyways, _Fahrenheit 451_ was my favorite out of those. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2023, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-ray-bradbury-story/988048/51 "2023-08-23T15:51:49Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > I remember reading “All Summer in a Day” in school and did not realize it was a Bradbury story! My first exposure to Bradbury was reading “All Summer In a Day” and [“The Emissary”](https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Bradbury_Emissary.pdf) (and possibly others, but those are the two I remember) when they were reprinted in _Weird Worlds_, a short-lived kids’ magazine devoted to SF, fantasy, and horror, published by Scholastic. I didn’t know who Bradbury was at the time, but I encountered the stories again as an adult and remembered reading them. _Weird Worlds_ was edited by Bob Stine, later to be known as R. L. Stine, author of the _Goosebumps_ books. I much later learned that Stine credits Ray Bradbury with turning him into a reader. For cite/details, see p. 202 of this 241-page PDF (p. 191 by its internal numbering): > **[Anthology.pdf](https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/scholastic/corp-home/Anthology.pdf)** > > 33.92 MB [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-ray-bradbury-story/988048.md?page=2)