Something Wicked This Way Comes [October 6, 2023]

[Yanique, Thread Master]

This is a Buddy Read for Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury starting October 6, 2023.


Happy Reading!

[Nirkatze]

Thank you!!

[Chris]

Spot

[Felina]

Spot

[Felina]

I love the way Bradbury writes. I’ve read a couple of his books and they’re so rich with imagery and sensory descriptions that it completely envelopes you. I’m like 4% into the audiobook and the description of the library alone has me so nostalgic I had to take a second and just visual my own childhood library and all the feelings that conjures. It’s the same as he writes. The potential each time you go through the stacks. I remember summers walking to the library and wanting to read anything and everything. I’d always have the max number of books checked out and I’d lug them all everywhere. I used to like to smell them. Oh man.

[Nirkatze]

Oooh, really looking forward to this! It's been an age and a half since I've read Bradbury. @Felina--love your descriptions too! The smell of books has such nostalgia...

[Felina]

I still like to smell them. On the occasion when I’m able to go to Barnes and get several books I’m always excited to sit on my bed just like my 12 year old self and lay them all out and touch them, flip through the pages, read random paragraphs and smell them deeply.

[Nirkatze]

I'm the same... I find myself petting books at bookstores and libraries, stopping to say hi to old favorites, and I have to have the full tactile experience before any purchase go on shelves...

[Felina]

Yep!! We are kindred spirits.

[Nirkatze]

High five! And @Felina, thank you for the friend request! The secret password is Blorp, by the way. ^^

[Felina]

Got it. I’ve added that to my password keeper so I don’t forget.

[Nirkatze]

LOL It's more sort of a joke--I feel really uncomfortable getting friend requests from random strangers who aren't in FBR and haven't even read my profile... so I hid the "secret password" in my GR profile to see if the friend requesters even looked at me... though if they had, they'd see the first line is "I do not accept friend requests from strangers..."

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I rarely read profiles... but also only request people I've done multiple Buddy Reads with, and now want to see their ratings/reviews, without having to visit their profile/bookshelves...

[Nirkatze]

Exactly! I don't understand why anyone would want to friend a complete stranger!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

super indie authors... the Goodreads version of thirstbots ;)

"Hi!!!... I think we'll be great friends!!!... here's a free copy of my book... please rate/review..."

No thanks...

[Ann-Marie]

I started this but the rest of the day is going to be crazy so not sure how long this will take. I am not loving the narrator though so may need to pivot to ebook if I do not warm up to his performance.

[Nirkatze]

Timelord Iain wrote: "super indie authors... the Goodreads version of thirstbots ;)

"Hi!!!... I think we'll be great friends!!!... here's a free copy of my book... please rate/review..."

No thanks..."

Uhg, yeah. Heh, that feels like a plot for a horror novel right there.


@Ann-Marie... oof, tough on bad narrator. Forewarned, forearmed. Should be joining y'all next week.

[Ann-Marie]

Nirkatze wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "super indie authors... the Goodreads version of thirstbots ;)

"Hi!!!... I think we'll be great friends!!!... here's a free copy of my book... please rate/review..."

No thank..."

2 week wait time for the ebook at the library so I am sucking it up with the audio lol

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Nirkatze wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "super indie authors... the Goodreads version of thirstbots ;)

"Hi!!!... I think we'll be great friends!!!... here's a free copy of my book... please rate/review..."

No thank..."

[Nirkatze]

Iain, how'd you get a picture of me? ;p

[Ann-Marie]

Does anyone know what Charles's last name is?

I mean if I hear Charles Halloway one more time there is a decent chance I rage quit this book lol This is taking me forever to finish, I caught up on Welcome to Wrexham Wednesday night and Survivor and The Amazing Race last night rather than listen to this. Just under 3 hours to go, this will be finished today.

[Ann-Marie]

I may be a few off either way but I counted 132 times that the author full named Charles Halloway! 132 TIMES! Why????? When I tell you that got on my very last nerve, I am just shaking my head, why??? As for the rest of the book I didn't love it, really didn't like it much either. I am glad I borrowed and didn't buy this, will not be making this an annual tradition. Sounds like you all enjoyed it more than me, I am happy for that but man I found it slow, boring & yeah, not for me lol

[Felina]

I’m only like 4% into it so I’m not sure just yet how much I’ll like it. The jury is still out. I do like his writing though.

[Nirkatze]

Started this today! LOL Ann-Marie, I'm having an opposite reaction, but then I'm only 2 hours or so in--through Chapter 19. I'm actually loving the narrator's voice, and the lyrical prose... just loving all the imagery.

Then again, I think Charles Holloway was only just introduced.

I'm also finding myself very nostalgic for this time period--seeing two young boys running around and playing with imagination... in an era before smartphones, video games, screens and internet...

[Ann-Marie]

I grew up pre-cell phone and was actually thinking the other day how much of a pain in the ass it was to not have google maps when driving someplace new so I do not really miss those days for that reason alone lol

[Chris]

Funny thing is, in those days I didn't get lost near as much.....

[Ann-Marie]

Chris wrote: "Funny thing is, in those days I didn't get lost near as much....."

Yeah, I printed out so many mapquest directions.....

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

How old and senile are you guys?... that you've forgotten the wonder that was the Rand McNally Road Atlas, circa 1995:



Sold in every gas station in this great nation, for the weary traveller that had no idea where they were... stored forever in that pocket on the back of the front seats, for quick grabbing in a driving emergency...

That's my childhood right there, when my parents were trekking across country...

[Ann-Marie]

Timelord Iain wrote: "How old and senile are you guys?... that you've forgotten the wonder that was the Rand McNally Road Atlas, circa 1995:



Sold in every gas station in this great nation, for the weary traveller tha..."

lol I did not have a road atlas but I did have a job that required me to travel 1-3 times each month and I hate flying so if it was the least bit feasible for me to drive that is what I did so many, many mapquest printouts were required lol

[Nirkatze]

I still don't have a cellphone, but I like the challenge of memorizing directions... I've also had the bad experience of a GPS trying to drive me into a river just like that Torchwood episode... "your destination is just ahead..."

Up to chapter 32. Still enjoying the imagery and writing, but I've definitely lost track a bit of what is happening, lol. (view spoiler)[The merry go round makes me think of Fairy Tale--I would not be surprised if this book is one of Stephen King's inspirations.

Also, when the boys are saying "Ms. Foley, Ms. Foley" it gave me a bit of a double take. One of my good friends (and also a teacher) is Foley... LOL. (hide spoiler)]

[Felina]

You don’t have a cellphone? That’s awesome. I’ve gotten somewhat sick of being constantly tethered to it. Aside from the fact that I think our pocket devices are totally ruing society, especially kids, I hate that I am always completely reachable. I have some leadership roles at my church and school and sometimes I just want to be off the grid. Back in the 80’s and 90’s you just accepted the fact that you weren’t always going to get a hold of someone and that’s just how it was. Now, people know that if they call (I can’t stand talking on the phone), text or email, that I’ve seen it immediately once they’ve sent it and if I take to long to respond I’m being rude. I think calling someone on the phone is rude!

I can’t figure out how to survive without a cell phone but I’d like to go back to simple flip phone with basic text capabilities. But! My audiobooks, kindle (I prefer the kindle app to my actually kindle) and podcasts are on my phone and that’s like 98% of my life so I don’t see it happening as much as I’d like to.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Do you have a satellite phone, Nirkatze?… I feel like, living in Alaska, you’d need something for a weather emergency…

[Felina]

The writing in this books kills me. 'The color of his voice matched his hair.'

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Sounds like when people describe drugs... I can taste colors, smell sounds...

[Felina]

Ha ha.

[Felina]

I’m getting slightly offended at how they keep referring to Mr. Holloway as old. He’s only 50! I’m going to be 40 in December and 50 doesn’t feel that old to me. 😂

[Ann-Marie]

If I never hear Charles Halloway again I will be happy lol

[Felina]

I finished this one and I gave it a 3.5 round up to 4. I love Bradburys writing style so much. The story was great but this is not my first young boys facing sinister forces coming of age story, and I feel like others were better even though I’m sure this was the foundation for those other ones. I felt like the visuals were stunning and the story was cool but I just didn’t care that much about the characters. I thought both boys were kinda duds and the dad was weird. The Illustrated man was a great villain though.

[Nirkatze]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Do you have a satellite phone, Nirkatze?… I feel like, living in Alaska, you’d need something for a weather emergency…"

Nope, no phone. I use an ipod for audiobooks, and have a kobo for ereading. I'll probably get a mini tablet of some kind when the ipod dies. Going to put off getting a phone as long as I can. It's the immediate access aspect...

I live in Alaska, but not the wilderness, so I don't worry about not having a phone.

[Nirkatze]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Sounds like when people describe drugs... I can taste colors, smell sounds..."

Synesthesia?

Definitely agreeing with Felina about the age thing--50's not bad! Age is a state of mind...

Also finished today--and dittoing a lot of what Felina says. I loved the writing--but I'd get lost in the turns of phrase and then be like "what just happened?"

I found it interesting that (view spoiler)[Will's father was as much involved as the boys. I feel like most books I read with child characters, the adults are absent, oblivious, or unbelievers. Or they die. The children are almost exclusively left to shoulder the major burdens on their own. Or even if they do have mentors (like, say, Dumbledore, or Chiron, or Haymitch)--they are still sent off on missions that only they can accomplish, no adults allowed. So to have the kids team up with an adult... and then the adult pretty much steal the spotlight because yeah, adult... it just felt like a story flow I haven't seen, either before or in a long time, I can't say. (hide spoiler)]

[Felina]

That’s a very good point. (view spoiler)[ like with It adults we’re basically incapable of seeing or understanding what was happening so the kids couldn’t rely on their parents at all. I read another one by Dan Simmons I think but I can’t remember the name and the kids were left resolving the issue. They were hiding it from the adults. I always thought that was strange because I would have notified my parents immediately if anything strange happened when I was a kid. I let them know if my shadow on the wall looked to lively. The idea that I’d shoulder possible world ending events or just murder and magic without notifying my parents is laughable. So in that regard, I feel like this was more believable. (hide spoiler)]

[Nirkatze]

Thinking a little of Stranger Things TV series--the parents get involved, but sometimes the kids confide in them and sometimes they don't... trying to think of other stories where the adults are as involved, or allied with the children...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Old/Young are mobile age units, basically covering:

Old: Your parents age: so about your age + 10-20, minimum...

Young: Your theoretical kids age, or youngest sibling: so your age minus 10-20...

That's a good summation anyway... this topic has come up before, and is a general phenomenon of the world...

[Felina]

Oh man, I feel like a Stranger Things rewatch. It’s one of my comfort shows.