The Ray Bradbury Reading Project


Ray Bradbury is easily one of my favorite short-story writers of all time. While he is mostly remembered for his contribution to the Science-Fiction genre and remains a huge influence, he also dabbled in fantasy, horror and even the bildungsroman. Personally, his imagination, originality, delectable prose and masterful story-telling abilities are difficult to match. For him, writing comes as naturally as breathing. He is anything if not consistent in producing quality literary works. Sure, some of his stories have been disappointing or underwhelming in certain ways but they usually contain enough positive elements that still make them worth reading. 

He was extremely prolific and according to his biographer Sam Weller (The Bradbury Chronicles, 2005), he has written over 3,600 short stories! It's a staggering number and completely boggles the mind that he was this prolific. I can barely find the time or energy to make a grocery list. 

Perhaps it is slightly ambitious but my goal is to read and review a grand total of 100 short-stories by Ray Bradbury. A nice round number. I don't want to impose a time limit for myself, otherwise the extra pressure might be another deterrent. If there is enough interest, maybe I'll host a Ray Bradbury reading challenge (two short stories for each month sounds reasonable, right?). Let's see how it goes! 

 Here are my favorite Ray Bradbury short-stories based on personal preference:
  1. Mars is Heaven!
  2. There Will Come Soft Rains  
  3. The Small Assassin
  4. The Rocket Man
  5. The Scythe
  6. The Sound of Thunder
  7. All Summer in a Day
  8. Kaleidoscope
  9. The Veldt
  10. The City
  11. The Fog Horn
  12. Marionette's Inc.
  13. The Pedestrian
  14. The Other Foot
  15. Embroidery
  16. Way in the Middle of the Air
  17. Fire Balloons
  18. The Kilimanjaro Device
  19. The Dwarf
  20. The Garbage Collector
  21. The Whole Town's Sleeping
  22. Ylla (February 1999)
  23. Rocket Summer (January 1999) 
  24. I See You Never
  25. Gotcha!
  26. A Medicine for Melancholy
  27.  The Wonderful Ice-Cream Suit
  28. The Flying Machine
  29. The October Game
  30. The Night
  31. The Last Night of the World
  32. The Scent of Sarsaparilla
  33. The Toynbee Convector
  34. The Dragon
  35. Perchance to Dream
  36. No Particular Night or Morning
  37. The Great Wide World Over There

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