Monday, June 13, 2011

The first post: Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

Art by Gray Foy
The Book Talk:







The Book Review:



This is the very first Bibliosnack entry, so I decided to discuss a book that is very near and dear to my heart.  In general, I'm going to try to review books as I read them (so there'll be a lot more contemporary stuff, or at least books that are new to me), but to christen this blog, I am going with my favorite.

Ray Bradbury is well known for his books Fahrenheit 451, and The Martian Chronicles, and his science fiction short stories.  Something Wicked This Way Comes is probably one of his more minor works according to most people, but it is a book I truly truly love.

The reason I love this book probably stems from the fact that my mom read it out loud to me when I was about ten-years-old.  I vividly remember the language rolling past my ears bizarrely -- I can't say I understood the story as much then as I understood the feeling of the words.  They felt disturbing and creepy and lovely and dark, and full of nostalgia and beautiful fear.  It was a feeling I just got.  When I read the book again later on my own, I found myself HAVING to just read it out loud.  Something Wicked is more poetry than prose, more mood piece than page turner, and in my opinion it's nearly perfect.

When I was a kid, Halloween was more than just a holiday -- it was a passion.  I loved the feeling in the air, and the dressing up, and the pumpkins, and the spookiness.  This book captures in an absolutely spot-on way what it feels like to be a 12-year-old on Halloween.  What it feels like to have the insatiable desire to both be older, and to stay the same age forever.  What it feels like to have a best friend you feel both completely connected to and disconnected from at the same time.

Now that I'm an adult, Something Wicked has even more meaning for me.  What I didn't get as a kid has come to life for me -- I understand Will's father's desire to be young forever, I understand the magic of a library, I understand how it feels to truly disconnect from a friend, and I understand more of what the words really mean.  Even more, it still reminds me of what it was like to be a kid.  And it still scares me.  Few things are more terrifying than the October People and the Illustrated Man, the hall of mirrors and the backwards-turning carousel.

The combination of the subject matter and the metaphor-dripping language is what makes this Bradbury book so amazing for me.  A good book tells a good story, but a great book both tells that story, and makes you feel it.  Something Wicked This Way Comes is my favorite book for this very reason.

3 comments:

  1. Yaaay! Awesome idea, love the post(s)! Nice looking blog Sara, pretty polished.

    Is the background the library you work at?

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  2. Awesome! I'm currently giving myself a crash/intro course to booktalking. I love the "two ways" you've done here -- it gives me a really clear illustration of the differences between a booktalk and a book review. And, your booktalk totally worked on me! I think as a youngster I only read a short passage from this book. Now I can't wait to read the whole thing.

    Looking forward to more posts!

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  3. Hey guys, thanks for commenting! My library is not quite as aesthetically pleasing as the library in that photo -- it's actually a picture of the children's section of the downtown Amsterdam library (also known as a bibliotheek).

    I'm glad I may have inspired you to read Something Wicked This Way Comes! In the future I hope my reviews will be a little less...sentimental, but that's what happens when you review your favorite book. I hope to update again soon!

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