The Illustrated Man

by Ray Bradbury | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 055327449x Global Overview for this book
Registered by efs300 of -- By post or by hand --, South Carolina USA on 8/7/2005
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10 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by efs300 from -- By post or by hand --, South Carolina USA on Sunday, August 7, 2005
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The Illustrated Man is classic Bradbury - a collection of tales that breathe and move, animated by sharp, intaken breath and flexing muscle. Here are eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin - visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body. The images, ideas, sounds and scents that abound in this phantasmagoric sideshow are provocative and powerful: the mournful cries of celestial travelers cast out cruelly into a vast, empty space of stars and blackness...the sight of gray dust selling over a forgotten outpost on a road that leads nowhere...the pungent odor of Jupiter on a returning father's clothing. Here living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth, widely believed to be one of the Grandmaster's premier accomplishments: as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.

Journal Entry 2 by efs300 from -- By post or by hand --, South Carolina USA on Friday, August 19, 2005
International Bookray, Forum post announcing bookray

Participants:
  1. ToXiCKiTTiKiSS (California, USA - US Ship Only)
  2. mepwave (New Jersey, USA - US Ship Only)
  3. TimeEnuf-atLast (Rhode Island, USA - Ship USA only)
  4. cyber-librarian (Illinois, USA - Ship USA/Canada only)
  5. alanfoxboro (Arkansas, USA - Ship Anywhere)
  6. kizmiaz(Lisbon, Portugal - Prefers to ship within Europe)
  7. platypussj(Colchester, UK)
  8. amberC (Australia - Ship Within Australia)<------Bookray Completed

Bookray instructions (Copied from catsalive):
1. SIGN UP for this bookray by sending me a Private Message. Order of participants will be juggled between geography, date of request and shipping limitations. Late additions may be added to the end of the list.
2. When the person before you on the list finishes reading the book, they will send you a Private Message for your postal address. If you are experiencing an RBC (Reading Backlog Crisis) or no longer wish to read it, let them (and me!) know and I will move you down/off the list.
3. WHEN YOU RECEIVE THE BOOK please make a journal entry so everyone knows it has safely arrived.
4. WHEN YOU FINISH THE BOOK, make another journal entry telling us what you thought - did you like it? Did you think it was well-written?
5. CONTINUE THE BOOKRAY by sending a Private Message to the person after you on the bookring list and request their postal address. Please check back here for the latest distribution list. If the person doesn't respond within 7-10 days (use your judgement), please PM the next person, and then me, so I can update the bookring list.
6. END OF THE RAY, The last person on the ray could try and continue the ray or just give/mail the book to someone else who might like to read it, an RABCK perhaps, look at cliff1976.com wish list web site or release it into the wild.

A note about shipping:

As this is a bookray and the book will not return to me it does not matter how long it takes this book to make its way from person to person. So I would insist that when shipping this book please use the most inexpensive shipping method available to you, ESPECIALLY when shipping this book internationally.

Journal Entry 3 by efs300 from -- By post or by hand --, South Carolina USA on Monday, August 22, 2005
Shipped this book to ToXiCKiTTiKiSS this afternoon, shipped via USPS Media Mail, total weight of the package was 5.4 ounces (153g).

While I was there I also released a book...

Journal Entry 4 by TemekuGirl from Temecula, California USA on Sunday, September 4, 2005
Received a while ago but didn't have access to internet then. Will read as soon as possible. Thanks! =)

Journal Entry 5 by TemekuGirl from Temecula, California USA on Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Didn't know if I would actually finish this book. Some of the stories just didn't really make sense to me but I did enjoy reading them. I think it was the first story that appealed to me the most because it was the least having to do with space. I'll send this to the next person as soon as I get their address.

Journal Entry 6 by mepwave on Tuesday, October 18, 2005
The book arrived today! Yay! I can't wait to read it. :)

Journal Entry 7 by mepwave on Friday, November 4, 2005
While the stories were a bit dated, Ray Bradbury is a genius when it comes to connecting morals with his chilling tales.

Journal Entry 8 by TimeEnuf-atLast on Wednesday, January 4, 2006
Arrived safely right before the holiday, will be reading this right after I finish up the one I'm reading now. I've been wanting to read this one for quite some time :o)

Journal Entry 9 by TimeEnuf-atLast on Friday, February 3, 2006
I really enjoyed this book and Bradbury's prose, thanks so much for including me in this bookray! I mailed it out this morning and here's it's delivery confirmation number :o)
#0305 0830 0002 2329 9125

Journal Entry 10 by ReadingGal79 from Antioch, Illinois USA on Thursday, February 9, 2006
I picked this up from the post office today from TimeEnuf-atLast in RI ... as part of this bookray. I have a couple books in front of it, but should get to it soon.

c. 1951 -- 186 pages -- Paperback -- by the world's greatest living science fiction writer -- Reading Level 6, IL 6-up -- #33 on the Voyager Classics Collection (Sci-Fi/Fantasy) list

Inside: Two kinds of space. There are the vast reaches of outer space -- the infinite black nothingness that holds the galaxies, where men in rockets move from the green hills of earth to the rain-glutted forests of Venus to the canals of Mars, and still farther ... even father ...

And there is inner space -- the bottomless well of fears, longing, hope and the complex emotions of the frail human creatures who challenge the universe -- those who in turn must face the peril not only of that vastness but also of their own sometimes terrible inventions ...

Only one writer today travels with equal ease through both. His name is Ray Bradbury. And these tales show vividly why he has been acclaimed the greatest science fiction writer of our time.

Journal Entry 11 by ReadingGal79 from Antioch, Illinois USA on Wednesday, March 8, 2006
I finished reading this yesterday. I really enjoyed the different short stories of Mars and other things. I especially liked the one about the children's fantasy nursery where their imagination came alive on the walls. This is such a different concept for tattoos and having them come alive into stories. I look forward to seeing the movie based on this book.

Journal Entry 12 by ReadingGal79 at Bookray in a RABCK, By Mail/Post/Courier -- Controlled Releases on Wednesday, March 8, 2006

Released 18 yrs ago (3/8/2006 UTC) at Bookray in a RABCK, By Mail/Post/Courier -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

I'm mailing this to alanfoxboro in AR ... as part of this bookray.
DC#0305-0830-0003-5122-8486

Journal Entry 13 by alanfoxboro from Searcy, Arkansas USA on Saturday, March 11, 2006
Received today in the mail. Thanks to efs300 and cyber-librarian. I will get to this one ASAP.

Journal Entry 14 by alanfoxboro from Searcy, Arkansas USA on Tuesday, June 13, 2006
The Illustrated Man is a great collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury. They focus mainly on planetary relations between the inhabitants of Mars and Earth, and the various colonizations and invasions of those two planets. My favorite story was "The Exiles."

Thanks to efs300 for this bookray. This book is on its way to kizmiaz pending an address.

Journal Entry 15 by kizmiaz from Belém , Lisboa (cidade) Portugal on Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Just got it, thanks alanfoxboro. Still have one to read before I can get to this one, but it won't take long.

Journal Entry 16 by kizmiaz from Belém , Lisboa (cidade) Portugal on Wednesday, July 19, 2006
I love short stories and I really enjoy Ray Bradbury’s writings (Something Wicked This Way Comes and Fahrenheit 451 are still the best I’ve read from him) so it was quite a joyful time I spent reading this book.
Most of the short stories here had already been published in magazines before they were compiled in this book, so it took a bit of work to make this book sound cohesive, I think this was well achieved.
Some of the stories are better than others but what can you do?
Most of them, even if they take place in Mars or in space, deal with the Human kind (that ever-flawing machine) and its more basic nature and contradictions. I liked most of the stories but found three of them just brilliant, these are: The Other Foot, The Concrete Mixer and The Man. Also loved the concept of The Exiles but found the story lacking.
This is off topic but I gotta share, some of these stories contain the year of when they’re supposed to be happening and that brought back some memories. When I was a kid I used to watch a TV show called Space 1999 in which humans already inhabited the moon and I thought to myself “that is going to be great”, but time passes and we’re still stuck on this dying planet of ours, so it’s really not that preposterous that in 1948 Bradbury wrote about atomic wars and fleeting to Mars in 1979. Do you still remember of thinking how life would be in the year 2000?
Sent on to the UK today (24.07.2006).

Journal Entry 17 by platypussj from Colchester, Essex United Kingdom on Thursday, August 17, 2006
I received this book last week, have begun reading and am thoroughly enjoying it so far. Will journal again when I'm done. Many thanks for including me in this ring.

Journal Entry 18 by platypussj from Colchester, Essex United Kingdom on Friday, August 25, 2006
I really enjoyed this, I am sure that some of the stories have been scripted for episodes of The Twilight Zone. Despite being dated in parts I did feel that the overall philosophy is just as relevant today. Mailing AmberC for her address.

Journal Entry 19 by amberC from Darwin, Northern Territory Australia on Monday, October 9, 2006
Arrived safely today.

Journal Entry 20 by amberC from Darwin, Northern Territory Australia on Sunday, October 15, 2006
An interesting look at what the future was thought to be 50+ years ago.

My favourite stories were The Veldt, The Highway and The Rocket.

Thankyou for sharing efs300.

The book will continue it's journey, possibly in a sci fi bookbag I have coming my way.

Journal Entry 21 by amberC from Darwin, Northern Territory Australia on Thursday, December 28, 2006
Into the Quality Sci Fi Bookbag.

Journal Entry 22 by xoddam from Springwood, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, January 11, 2007
I'm catching the whole lot, as I don't seem to be able to make up my mind what to keep. I'm pleased to find myself at the end of such a distinguished lineage of BookCrossers who have held this book in their hands; probably I'll read it now, though I can't say Bradbury ever really gripped me in my teenage fanatic SF-reading phase.

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