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19th out of 27 books
—
26 voters
Button, Button: Uncanny Stories
What if every time you pushed a button you received $50,000...but someone you didn’t know died? Would you still push the button? How many times?
"Button, Button", which inspired a memorable Twilight Zone episode, is just one of a dozen unforgettable tales in this new collection by Richard Matheson, the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Legend and What Dreams May C
Paperback, 208 pages
Published
April 1st 2008
by Tor Books
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القصه القصيره Button, Button
هى اللى اتعمل منها فيلم "ذا بوكس" بتاع كاميرون دياز
الحبكه فى الاول تبان حلوه...حد بيخبط على بابك ....يديك صندوق فيه زر...لو ضغطت عليه تاخد فلوس كتير فى القصه كانوا نص مليون...و فى الفيلم بقوا مليون...و مقابل الفلوس دى فى حد "متعرفوش" هيموت
لغايه كده الحبكه تقارب العبقريه...انها المعضله الابديه بين حب المال و بين الانسانيه
هل الفلوس تبرر انك تقتل روح؟؟...و الاهم هل كونك متعرفش الشخص ده مبرر كافى لتهدئه ضميرك؟؟...شوف لحد هنا العبقر...more
القصه القصيره Button, Button
هى اللى اتعمل منها فيلم "ذا بوكس" بتاع كاميرون دياز
الحبكه فى الاول تبان حلوه...حد بيخبط على بابك ....يديك صندوق فيه زر...لو ضغطت عليه تاخد فلوس كتير فى القصه كانوا نص مليون...و فى الفيلم بقوا مليون...و مقابل الفلوس دى فى حد "متعرفوش" هيموت
لغايه كده الحبكه تقارب العبقريه...انها المعضله الابديه بين حب المال و بين الانسانيه
هل الفلوس تبرر انك تقتل روح؟؟...و الاهم هل كونك متعرفش الشخص ده مبرر كافى لتهدئه ضميرك؟؟...شوف لحد هنا العبقر...more
Richard Matheson wrote some of the most iconic Twilight Zone episodes, so when I saw this short story collection at the library, I figured it had to be great.
Unfortunately, only the title story really packed the sort of punch that I was expecting. The other stories range from clever to mediocre, with more falling on the latter side. The TZ episode "Mute" was never one of my favorites, and the short story that inspired it went on for far too long and wasn't any better than the television episode....more
Unfortunately, only the title story really packed the sort of punch that I was expecting. The other stories range from clever to mediocre, with more falling on the latter side. The TZ episode "Mute" was never one of my favorites, and the short story that inspired it went on for far too long and wasn't any better than the television episode....more
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For the most part, this was a really good collection of short stories. Matheson seems to be quite good at the form, and I found myself enjoying most of these stories, though there were a few in there that just didn't work all that well for me. Many of them seemed to have an "O'Henry" kind of feel to them. None were too long and the writing style made them very easy reads (except for the Jazz Machine).
What didn't work for me: The Jazz Machine, Tis the Season to be Jelly, and the Creeping Terror....more
What didn't work for me: The Jazz Machine, Tis the Season to be Jelly, and the Creeping Terror....more
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I thought this story was really interesting and it is surprising to see what people would do just to fulfill their values over there morals. In this story, it is about a Husband,Arthur and a Wife,Norma,who randomly encounters a man named Mr. Steward. Mr. Steward hands the wife a button and asks her if she would press it to kill some one randomly that she doesn't know of, but would earn 50,000 dollars. Her husband did want her to click that button, but her wife was just tempted to do so because s...more
The Box: Uncanny Stories is a creepy collection of twelve short stories by author Richard Matheson who also wrote I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come.
As with most short story anthologies, I enjoyed some of these tales more than others. In this collection, there were maybe two that I didn't care for.
These stories are strange and suspenseful and have supernatural and fantasy aspects to them. Most of the stories have an unexpected twist to them. I'll mention a few that I enjoyed here in my review....more
As with most short story anthologies, I enjoyed some of these tales more than others. In this collection, there were maybe two that I didn't care for.
These stories are strange and suspenseful and have supernatural and fantasy aspects to them. Most of the stories have an unexpected twist to them. I'll mention a few that I enjoyed here in my review....more
Read Button, Button - Uncanny Stories by Richard Matheson. One of many books I picked up cheap at the co-op in a sale this year (or last).
I really enjoyed I Am Legend before reading this. I think it was a book that touched on a lot of interesting ideas, but had dated a little bit too much (unfortunately) so I couldn't understand or unpick it as much as I'd like.
Button, Button is (unsurprisingly given the title) a huge pile of small stories. Most are pretty standard, being written in the late 50'...more
I really enjoyed I Am Legend before reading this. I think it was a book that touched on a lot of interesting ideas, but had dated a little bit too much (unfortunately) so I couldn't understand or unpick it as much as I'd like.
Button, Button is (unsurprisingly given the title) a huge pile of small stories. Most are pretty standard, being written in the late 50'...more
Well, I don’t know where to begin or end with this book. I will say my reading of it started out very promisingly. It came highly recommended from a co-worker who I thought had flawless taste in books, and when I heard this author wrote I Am Legend and the first story from this collection, “Button, Button” is going to be a major motion picture, I really thought it couldn’t be better. Maybe I was wrong.
The book is basically a written version of the Twilight Zone. These stories were originally pub...more
The book is basically a written version of the Twilight Zone. These stories were originally pub...more
Button, Button, by Richard Matheson, is about a couple who are facing fiancial problems. One day Mrs. Lewis finds a strange man at her door with a box with a button on it. He offers her a oposition, she and her husband will not hit the button, and nothing happens, or they hit the button recieve $50,000 but someone in the world, they dont know, will die. After some thinking, Mrs. Lewis presses the button. The next day the man picks up the box and tell them that the button will be reset, and will...more
I've been reading a lot of Matheson lately, and this one wasn't much different -- clever premise after clever premise, but nothing really goes anywhere and don't expect any kind of meaningful ending.
That having been said, I enjoy reading Matheson, but he's kinda like bingeing on junk food -- strictly empty calories.
The first half of the book is kind of "light," in the damning aspect of that term. The title story has an interesting premise, but the ending is cheap. For a better version of a rela...more
That having been said, I enjoy reading Matheson, but he's kinda like bingeing on junk food -- strictly empty calories.
The first half of the book is kind of "light," in the damning aspect of that term. The title story has an interesting premise, but the ending is cheap. For a better version of a rela...more
Richard Matheson is a really interesting author in terms of style. I think, in many ways, he is a bridge between Poe and Stephen King in terms of tone and subject matter. I haven't read a lot of Stephen King but he is certainly not as dark, brooding, and foreboding as Poe was. King seems to focus more mystery, suspense, and horror (more than terror which I would put in the Poe camp). Matheson, in Button Button and the other stories in this collection, is a little bit between those worlds with a...more
Disappointing collection of Matheson stories reissued to tie into an illfated movie based on the title story. Of the group of stories only a couple rise above mediocre. What has always appealed to me about Matheson is his ability to take the amazing and place it amidst the very ordinary. His straightforward style creates a kind of normalcy that grounds the unreal in reality. BUTTON, BUTTON and MUTE and NO SUCH THING AS A VAMPIRE all work quite well. Can't imagine the title story being tortured i...more
Feb 20, 2010
Bunny
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
audio-book,
read-in-10
I really, really hate to admit that I didn't like this. I adore Matheson, I really do. But I get the feeling this is a collection of stories that someone requested he NOT publish.
The title story is actually incredible. I do not understand how they could've possibly made this into a motion picture, unless they drag it out irritatingly. Pattern of Survival took me 2 times listening to understand, and while the premise was great, there was no spine tingle. I read Matheson for the spine tingle.
I re...more
The title story is actually incredible. I do not understand how they could've possibly made this into a motion picture, unless they drag it out irritatingly. Pattern of Survival took me 2 times listening to understand, and while the premise was great, there was no spine tingle. I read Matheson for the spine tingle.
I re...more
It's always hard to read short stories, especially in an anthology, because they vary so much in length, quality, mood and so on. The stories in this collection, mostly from the 1950s and the 1960s, seem rather watered down to me, perhaps being too short and rushed (on the other hand, I loved Matheson's full-length novel I Am Legend).
The story "No Such Thing as a Vampire" was oddly set in Rumania, not Romania, though that could be the mistaken spelling of its time (1959).
The one story I did li...more
The story "No Such Thing as a Vampire" was oddly set in Rumania, not Romania, though that could be the mistaken spelling of its time (1959).
The one story I did li...more
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I read this book simply because I saw endorsements for the author by Ray Bradbury and Stephen King. I confess, this is my first time reading Richard Matheson. I didn't know anything about him before reading this book. Now, I'm a fan!
Button, Button is a quick read. There are only a dozen stories and some of them are as short as eight pages. Matheson is also a dialogue heavy writer (and least in this collection), which gives the stories a great pace and ads to the quickness of the reading experien...more
Button, Button is a quick read. There are only a dozen stories and some of them are as short as eight pages. Matheson is also a dialogue heavy writer (and least in this collection), which gives the stories a great pace and ads to the quickness of the reading experien...more
I'm yet to read a novel by Richard Matheson, but his short stories continue to impress me. This collection in all fairness was not as good as the absolutely awesome Nightmare at 10 000 Feet, but it still offered such strange and interesting tales. Simply put, Matheson is a master of What If, there is something so simple it borders on genius with his set ups, he has such fascinating and imaginative premises. The book starts off with Button, Button, the story that inspired the underwhelming 2009 c...more
Matheson is an early influence on me, as you can probably tell by my first book A View of the Edge of the World. One of the writers for the original Twilight Zone series, his stories all held morals, but also had some spectacular way of transmitting those morals. Many people contend that he's a shock writer, the original Shyamalan, but he is so much more, so much deeper and more honest. Sure there are stories like "The Creeping Terror" which are overhanded satire (Vonnegut on steroids), which i'...more
Matheson is the man!
Short, simple, basic, but completely bad ass stories. Every writer should read these short stories.
You don't need big fancy words or sentence structures to tell a great story. Matheson is proof of that.
No Such Thing As Vampires is my fav of this collection.
Short, simple, basic, but completely bad ass stories. Every writer should read these short stories.
You don't need big fancy words or sentence structures to tell a great story. Matheson is proof of that.
No Such Thing As Vampires is my fav of this collection.
As with most short story collections, the quality of the work varies from story to story. Of the twelve stories contained within Button, Button: Uncanny Stories I enjoyed about half; of those six, I might reread three. It isn't as though Matheson isn't a capable writer. His prose is direct and snappy, his ideas interesting and frequently clever, but something in the overall execution left me cold.
Perhaps it's the awkward pacing: several of the stories go on for much longer than they ought to; T...more
Perhaps it's the awkward pacing: several of the stories go on for much longer than they ought to; T...more
Well, surprisingly I did not love this collection as much as most of Matheson's work. Button, Button is a cute story--suitable for a Twilight Zone eppy-and I don't for the life of me see how they made a movie out of it (which probably explains why it flopped). But some of the other stories just fell a bit flat for me. I enjoyed "Jazz Machine" very much--very off type for him but really beautiful. And I adored "A Flourish of Strumpets"....I mean the title alone wins kudos--but the story itself is...more
I picked up this book, once I realized the movie The Box was based on a short story by Richard Matheson. I wasn't familiar with Richard Matheson, but apparently, Stephen King was once quoted as saying that he is the author who influenced him the most as a writer, so I figured I would give him a try.
I read the first story, which the movie, The Box is based on called Button, Button and loved it. It is a tale of ethics vs. greed as a married couple possesses a device in which each time they press a...more
I read the first story, which the movie, The Box is based on called Button, Button and loved it. It is a tale of ethics vs. greed as a married couple possesses a device in which each time they press a...more
Actually, I've only read the ebook version of Matheson's short story "Button, Button". It was reminiscent of WW Jacob's
The Monkey's Paw with a dark twist in the end. I have seen both the Twilight Zone version and the Cameron Diaz movie, both of which weren't faithful to Matheson's original concept (although the Twilight Zone version seemed closer even though it differed in the ending). Personally, I think I prefer the Monkey's Paw, but Button, Button is still a nice, good read, especially since...more
The Monkey's Paw with a dark twist in the end. I have seen both the Twilight Zone version and the Cameron Diaz movie, both of which weren't faithful to Matheson's original concept (although the Twilight Zone version seemed closer even though it differed in the ending). Personally, I think I prefer the Monkey's Paw, but Button, Button is still a nice, good read, especially since...more
This book was an interesting collection of short stories. They all had a disturbing quality about them that didn't always make sense to me but was facinating nonetheless. The husband that tries to punish his wife and friend for having an affair behind his back by pretending she is being attacked by vampires...the boy who regresses by learning to talk...the church organ that becomes self aware and of course the reason I picked up the book in the first place-"Button, Button" the very short but int...more
There is a reason why so many of Matheson's stories were turned into television episodes or movies - he is a truly gifted writer. He has the ability to convey unbelievable amounts of plot and characterization in a few short pages. The movie The Box was based on the first story in this collection - and the story is only a few short pages (granted, the movie kinda took the idea and ran with it and not necessarily in a good way). I think the subtitle of this collection is perfectly accurate - these...more
This is surprisingly disappointing. It seems as though every story is a dull plod to whatever 'punchline' Matheson wants to work you up to. Things that I guess are supposed to be tongue in cheek (like the LA becomes conscious story) fall flat into camp-y-land. But then again perhaps this is a time barrier. I wasn't surprised or intrigued by any of these stories. Also, the characters were utterly featureless- a mind-numbing procession of Bob, Susan, Ralph, Sam, and Mary-s that were basically the...more
Pretty nifty short story collection from one of the masters of the craft. Previously, I'd only read Matheson's "I Am Legend," admired his sublime work on "The Twilight Zone" and watched "Somewhere in Time," so I thought it was high time I dug into more of the classic works of the man Stephen King credits as his greatest influence. I was not disappointed. The title story, "Girl of My Dreams" and "Mute" were my favorites, and alone worth the reading of this collection. Very "Twilight Zone." Some o...more
I saw the movie The Box last summer and I enjoyed it, but...I didn't get it. I don't know if I blinked or sneezed, but I missed something important because at the end, although I could piece together the obvious outcome, I wasn't sure exactly what happened. Before watching the movie, I didn't realize it was based on a short story, but afterward, I felt compelled to seek it out. Even after reading the story, I still have to wonder about some things from the movie. Thanks, Hollywood, for making a...more
A fairly silly collection that reminded me of The Wrong Door skits from Futurama, in which a story would have a bizzare and overtly obvious twist at the end. Stories included one about L.A. being alive and devouring the country and the rest of the world with citrus trees and desires to play tennis, a writer who is truly his own biggest fan, a button that will give you 50,000 and kill someone "you don't know" , and a suit that takes on a life of it's own.
Not all of the stories were a waste though...more
Not all of the stories were a waste though...more
Rarely do you run across horror or suspense writing that could be called light reading, but that's the category I'd put this collection of stories in. They're all intriguing ideas, stories that catch your imagination from the very first paragraph. However, they never go beyond the idea phase, in my opinion, They lack the punch of good short stories, and are more like extremely well written notes for a future story. Even taking into consideration that these stories were written four decades ago,...more
The reason why I bought this compilation of previously published short fictions by Richard Matheson is because the first short story, "Button, Button" was adapted into a major studio released movie starring Cameron Diaz, adequately titled "The Box".
The movie itself was such an unbelievably boring feast you could fall asleep for an hour and not miss any important details. But the short story, well, it's different. "Button, Button" was way much better it seemed hard to believe "The Box" was an ada...more
The movie itself was such an unbelievably boring feast you could fall asleep for an hour and not miss any important details. But the short story, well, it's different. "Button, Button" was way much better it seemed hard to believe "The Box" was an ada...more
This book was odd. I was first drawn into it from the movie Button Button starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsdon. The book is a series of little short stories, that have great similarities to the Twilight Zone. So if you take a liking to the twilight zones you will defenitly like this book. Some of my favorite short stories were Girl of My Dreams, The Creeping Terror, Shock Wave, and Clothes Make the Man. Some of the stories were hard to comprehend and way too complex. I still would recommend t...more
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Born in Allendale, New Jersey to Norwegian immigrant parents, Matheson was raised in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1943. He then entered the military and spent World War II as an infantry soldier. In 1949 he earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and moved to California in 1951. He married in 1952 and has four children, three of w...more
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