Can we just admit that Bradbury was one of our greatest American writers? Can we all just agree on that? Is there a writer that speaks so clearly about humanity, even when he's writing about martians? (No.)

Some of these stories were chilling, some were funny, some were heart-breaking. I had never read any of his Irish stories before, and found them to be delightful. My particular favorite of those was The Cold Wind and the Warm, in which fairies return to Ireland . . . just not the kind of fairies you're expecting. I liked that these stories, which were chosen by Bradbury as what he thought of as his best, were some of the ones you don't normally come across. The Veldt is not to be found in this collection, because it is in so many others. There are no stories of The Family here. But the Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse is here, and many of his less famous Greentown, USA, stories are here as well. It's a wonderful survey of an amazing career.

Trying to get back into the habit of reading and paying attention via short story. I WILL finish this book and not add it to the fifteen book stack of 2024 partially read books.

This is an excellent collection. Like everything else Bradbury, I find some of the stories simply exquisite: finely written, chilling, clear, nothing extraneous, unique (especially in their time); others, I find sentimental and reveling in a kind of aching nostalgia whose absolute sweetness I cannot believe in: ode to the shiny, unblemished American Midwest boyhood, circa 1930s. Nevertheless, there is something worth savoring in the least of Bradbury's works. And the best of his works are small masterpieces.

"Truly a collection of a variety of Bradbury's short stories, ranging from incredible, to mediocre to just plain strange. This was a large collection and truly a labor of love to read but I'm glad I did it."

Pros: Some truly beautiful pieces that only Bradbury could write.

Cons: Though I adore Bradbury's writing, he does have a tendency to ramble.

Full Review:
Many of Bradbury's works are collections of short stories. And to be honest, a lot of the ones they chose to use in this collection were mediocre at best. There were some truly remarkable ones, like All The Town Is Sleeping, The Dummer Boy of Shiloh, At Midnight In The Month of June, Remember Sascha and The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl. But there's also proof that they can't all be winners and homeruns with some serious weird ones like Unterderseaboat Doktor, The Dwarf and The Dragon.

This was definitely a labor of love, to finish this book. And I learned a valuable lesson. That even one of the literary greats, like Bradbury doesn't always churn out gold. I'm glad I read it but I'm also glad to be done with it. I've had a large dose of Bradbury and I'm ready to take a break.

After rewatching the carnival X-Files episode, I remembered Something Wicked This Way Comes. After reading that again, I went on a huge Bradbury binge, which culminated in reading all 100 of the stories in the mammoth Bradbury Stories, without getting distracted by any other books during the reading.

He had a peerless imagination and took such joy in writing. This book is an absolute treasure, and will serve as a perfect way to revisit (or discover) his best short work. Also, if you’re a Bradbury fan, Sam Weller’s Bradbury-bio-via-Bradbury-interviews is worth a read. — Josh Hanagarne


From The Best Books We Read in February: http://bookriot.com/2015/03/02/riot-r...

Reading this book was pure indulgence, like eating a huge ice cream cone on a summer day. I wove it in between other books in my queue, and simply wallowed in Bradbury's stories for months. I spent a year reading Bradbury in 2014, which included multiple collections of his short stories. Even with this familiarity, I only ran across about half a dozen stories in this collection that I had seen elsewhere. Clearly, writing was like breathing for this master storyteller. The stories in this collection have an appeal that would be nearly universal; the size of the volume is a bit off-putting, but each story selected here would be interesting to an extremely wide audience. Anyone who enjoys mixing short stories into their life will enjoy. This would also be a fantastic resource for a writing class or for a class that dedicated itself to studying short stories, as the range of topics is broad enough to explore, yet has enough consistency to allow for seeing how Bradbury treats themes in various settings. Really, just read it.

Some of Bradbury's favorite topics included time travel, ghosts, and summer. Personally, I love all the stories set in Green Town, Illinois, especially those that feature Douglas. These totally capture the spirit of summer, which, for Bradbury, is deeply connected with childhood. Summer becomes a predominant setting for Bradbury (with Ireland a close second, in this volume), with imagery full of heat, fun, and innocence.

Ghosts can come from anywhere--from the past, from the future, from your favorite things. I love his insight into the fact that we are haunted by things, and this can take a lot of forms and play out a lot of different ways. Sounds obvious, but it is one of those themes that promotes compassion and empathy, as well as providing excellent material for stories. Ghosts can require revenge or be rooted in anger, but they can also be reminders, connected with more positive memories. Ghosts can spur to action and connect people who were desperate for one another.

Through time travel, Bradbury is able to touch on so many "what ifs." The genius of these stories is that he never focuses on the how, but on what could be accomplished. Definitely a Wellsian influence on some of his thoughts.

My favorite story was "Bless Me, Father, for I have Sinned." The spiritual and psychological insight into confession and forgiveness were absolute dynamite. Very powerful and recommended to anyone who feels as though they will never get out from the weight of their sin.

This volume showed me that Bradbury is like the Beatles--they can do so many different kinds of things, with so many different sounds and textures, but you can always just tell that it is the Beatles at work. Bradbury's way with words is like that. He can take on any subject, but there is just something about his words and imagery that retain his fingerprints in many settings. His presence is a "ghost" that haunts all of his work, despite the fact that it might sound different and explore so many different locations.

I have been a huge fan of Ray Bradbury ever since I read Fahrenheit 451 in high school (which is much longer ago than I'd care to admit...). Since then I have hunted down and devoured his other works, from novels to short story collections to novellas to essays, and I've found very little of his work that doesn't enchant me or at least get me thinking about the world in a slightly different way. This collection is massive, packing a hundred of his stories into one volume... and it's an enormously varied look at his writing, and full of hidden gems that will delight both newcomers to his work and longtime fans.

There's a huge variety of stories in this book. Some are obviously science fiction, with a few even being sampled from The Martian Chronicles, while others have more of a horror bent to them, reminiscent of Something Wicked This Way Comes. Still others come from his "Dublin" era of stories, while I recognized some from his Green Town stories (more specifically the Dandelion Wine collection). Crime stories, dystopias, nostalgic looks at the past, hopeful visions of the future, stories of dread and despair and wonder... it's all here. And while I was already familiar with some of these tales, there were others that were new and fantastic to me.

There are a few of my favorite stories that, unfortunately, don't make an appearance here -- no "There Will Come Soft Rains" or "The Sound of Thunder" or "I Sing the Body Electric." But then, this collection was assembled by Bradbury himself, and his favorite stories won't necessarily mesh with mine. Consider this less of a "greatest hits" collection and more of some of the author's personal favorites.

Whether you're just getting introduced to Bradbury's work or are a longtime fan who hungers for more, this is a great collection. It will take a while to read -- it's long, and is meant to be savored slowly rather than devoured all in one go -- but it's well worth your time.

Ray Bradbury is one of the greatest storytellers that ever lived. To learn just how great, you have to delve into the tremendous wealth of short stories he has written.

Bradbury is in many ways a Norman Rockwell with words. While the science fiction aspects of his stories are very dated due to our advances in science, the humanity in them will never age. With every story there is something so human and so easy to relate to on a deep level.

The stories in this collection run a huge gamut of genres from thrillers, to science fiction, to horror. From just downright strange to pure slice of life. This is a huge book, running just under 900 pages, and is a great moment to moment backup read allowing you to take a story here and there when you need one.

Ray Bradbury is one of the most important writers that ever lived. His novels are important and amazing. His heart though, lives in these stories.

Read this.

So. Much. Bradbury! Not every story was a winner. But I remembered reading a lot of them, and the rest were like little adventures. I just love his writing.

Wonderful collection of 100 stories, spanning the writing life of a master of evocation. My childhood reawakened with memories as I read through these stories. I stretched out the reading over two weeks so as not to finish too fast. These stores are new to the collection The Stories of Ray Bradbury.

No one writes a story like Ray Bradbury. Bradbury's stories are magical, enchanting, mysterious, and deeply memorable. This is the fifth time I have read the Martian Chronicles over the years and the read was as delightful the fifth time as the first time. I encourage. everyone to read the Marian Chronicles, followed by The Illustrated Man and then Dandelion Wine. Don't stop there, continue reading Bradbury's work - it is volumious and each book as good as the one before.

A wonderful collection of Bradbury's short stories and magazine work. It's a great wealth of literary wonder - although, owing to the fact that some of his best work is missing (The Veldt and There Will Come Soft Rains in particular), I honestly feel like The Illustrated Man would've been a better use of my time. Still, it's Bradbury at his best - a sublime recollection of things that never were and could be.