Futurist, R.I.P.

I may never have learned how to read if it weren't for writers like Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin and Philip K. Dick. These writers had my teenage brain in their hands. I was a very slow reader as a kd, in fact, in remedial reading class, my processing was so poor. Comics were all I really made any effort to read until I fell over science fiction.

Something Wicked This Way Comes was a huge part of my imaginative life. I probably read it six times in early high school years. And Farenheit 451 totally influenced all of my thinking and the way I perceived the world...dystopian and to question authority. (the movie was an obsession for me). Bradbury inspired me to absolutely feel the power of books from that one novel and the idea of storytelling being so important that we would have to memorize books if they were banned....wow!

I read Dandelion Wine, SWTWC and F451 again in a bookclub in 2000...and you know he was very poetic in much of his writing... these novels are often now read by teens...and I think they are so wonderfully literary for young people. I know that I just soaked and feel dreaming into his books and I am forever grateful for them getting me to read.