I love Ray Bradbury's stories, and I really love his book on writing. It was interesting reading this grouping of stories (it's LONG, and took me a long time of over lunch reading) after reading about his writing process. As a writer, seeing some of his devices take bloom was fascinating.

This book took a while. Part of that was because it is massive (888 pages); part of it is because this is the kind of book that you savor. It you read too much of it in a stretch, then you start losing the beauty of the writing. Bradbury paints pictures in his stories. Some of these are science fiction, some are fantasy, and other have just a touch of horror. It isn't the horror that leaves nothing to the imagination, but rather the one that you just know that what happens after the last word is going to be unpleasant.

Many of the stories I knew from other collections, still others were new to me. All of them are good. I'd suggest if you are reading to meet a goal of "X" number of books that you save this until after you've met your goal or that you read it in between books. You'll want to dip in and enjoy it.

Who will like this book? Anyone who enjoys fantasy or enjoys reading beautifully drawn stories. I think you will find it rewarding.

I am actually not far into the book. But I felt it was already worth rating, because it's been showing me the things I continuously fear or obsess about. In other words, this collection of stories has made me more aware of myself, which is highly unusual for a collection of fiction. I don't recall this happening to me before, which makes this book superlative.

My go-to teller of tales for the fall. What a lovely collection. One of me favorites is "A Far Away Guitar", which is haunting and uplifting. It leaves you with that delicious feeling of hope around the corner for all.

The opening story of this collection, “The Whole Town’s Sleeping,” encapsulates the greatness of Ray Bradbury’s short fiction writing rather nicely. Eventually reproduced as part of the novel Dandelion Wine, this tale expertly weaves wistful nostalgia, menace, and a thrilling climax. And what a shudder-inducing final sentence! Mind you, not all of the great ones are here. Notable absentees include “The Fog Horn,” “The Veldt,” and “There Will Come Soft Rains.” I see this, perhaps, as a testament to the prolific nature of Bradbury’s work. Stories that I did read in this book for the first time are “The Banshee,” “The Toynbee Convector,” “The Garbage Collector,” and “The Witch Door.”

Until I read this volume my exposure to Mr. Bradbury's works were his classic sci-fi novels, so this is the first time I've encountered Bradbury fiction that isn't sci-fi. My guess is that like 1/3 of these stories are not sci-fi or fantasy. However, overall I was disappointed in most of the non-sci-fi stories.

Overall there are a few good stories, and a couple of great stories (especially The Laurel and Hardy Affair), but the rest are average at best IMHO. Maybe if this had been "50" of his most celebrated tales I would have gone to four stars.

What can one say about the works of Ray Bradbury that hasn't already been said, are these his 100 most celebrated tales, who's to say not I! They are great though, some of my favorites are not represented here though, but as an introduction to or for those already familiar with and love the work of Ray Bradbury. You can't go wrong with this collection.

Some of my favorites presented here are:

The Rocket
The Flying Machine
The Exiles
The Toynbee Convector
The Illustrated Man
The Dwarf
and The Machineries of Joy
But in my honest opinion you can't go wrong with any of them.

Reading 100 stories, I came to expect mind-expanding twists and take them for granted.
Then, near the end, I was emotionally blown away by two of them.
Forever and the Earth, in which a time travelling visits Thomas Wolfe minutes before he will die, and takes him a couple hundred years into the future, for a brief visit, during which he writes more masterpieces, before he must return to his own time and time as and when scheduled.
Last Rites, in which another time traveler goes back and visits great writers when they are old and dying, without recognition, without audience, and tells them after death they will have many readers and their works will be revered. Hermann Melville, Edgar Allan Poe... Tears came to my eyes when reading that one.

What can I possibly say? There are some stories that you want to skip over...but not many in 100, so I'm giving this a 5 star review. So very comprehensive, and the thought that he wrote even more than THESE stories is mind-boggling...

Some of these stories are better than others. But Ray Bradbury's imagination is always a joy to behold. His stories inspire me and awaken child-like thoughts and feelings. I always enjoy going back to them.

Ray Bradbury, at his best, is excellent. This collection, however, is decidedly second-rate. What's unusual is this collection was published while he was alive. I can't fault him for wanting to cash in, but this is the kind of material that usually emerges after the author has died and the publishers start scraping the bottom of the barrel--for example, all the posthumous Vonnegut short story collections.

I was fooled by the subtitle of this collection--"100 of His Most Celebrated Tales". Celebrated by whom? Maybe the publishers popped some champagne corks for putting one over on the public.

The sheer volume of this volume (approx. 111 cubic inches) led me to mistake it for being somehow definitive. It is not and I caution Bradbury fans against buying it as an introduction for eager young readers. Better by far to start them off with The Illustrated Man or Martian Chronicles for short stories, Dandelion Wine or Fahrenheit 451 for novels.

Bradbury was ambitious and published at a time when short stories were in high demand and thus there was a relatively low bar for quality and it shows in this collection. Much of this feels like hack work churned out for a paycheck. At his worst, Bradbury's prose is overwrought, tending to purple, his characters are mere ciphers, and the dialogue is atrocious. The ideas are often pretty thin and most of these stories come off as half-baked Twilight Zone episodes--premise, set-up, and then a twist you can see coming from a mile off.

This collection will likely disappoint fans and scare off those new to Bradbury. Sorry I bought this.

I'd already said what a joy it was to read The Martian Chronicles a while back. Now I get to share with you how I felt about this compendium of short stories - truly amazing work, and a lot of it very much ahead of its time.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of social roles being taken as forever fixed. But at the same time, Bradbury was capable of seeing much more. For instance, "June 2003: Way In The Middle Of The Air" hypothesizes a world where the civil rights movement didn't happen and African-Americans went to Mars as a group.  This is, in fact, a part of The Martian Chronicles - but it has a lot more impact here on its own, and deserves to be read independently. He writes so many short horror stories and clearly loves his Poe - who shows up as a character in a few of them - but he also writes odd short love tales. The sheer size of this volume makes it probable that there's something for everyone.

Bradbury has aged extremely well, as long as you can get past the 50s-household setting of a lot of his work. I am glad that I can. Five of five stars.