A Mini Ramblings On...Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

“Death makes everything else sad.  But death itself only scares.  If there wasn’t death, all the other things wouldn’t get tainted.”

Something horrible happened this past week.  On June 5, 2012 we lost great mind and brilliant writer Ray Douglas Bradbury.  According to wikipedia, as a youth Ray was heavily influenced by the writings of Edgar Allen Poe.  He loved how Poe was able to bring readers into his works.  His love for this aspect of writing is very apparent to any who have read his books.  He draws you into his characters.  You feel what they feel--their laughter, their joy, their pain, their terror.  Through his child characters, you may remember what was, through his older characters, we see the promise and pain of what will be.  He makes us THINK. About ourselves.  About our lives.  About what it takes to be a good person, to live a good life.

Fahrenheit 451 is no longer required reading at most high schools, and I admit that I never had cause to read it.  The book sits in my “to read” wooden bookshelf under the framed album Abraxas by Santana.  Something Wicked This Way Comes was on that same bookshelf until this weekend when I decided that I would read it as my tribute to a great man. I was not disappointed.

Something Wicked This Way Comes was everything I thought it would be and more.  A story of two boys and one middle aged man, the boys finding out about the horrors of life, the man finding the courage to face the horror and make sense of it.  

The carnival speaks to the darkness in us all--the ability to let our shortcomings, our missed opportunities, get the better of us.  At the end of the day, knowing the inevitable, what do we do with that knowledge?  Do we shrivel up and let it win?  Do we make the most of what we have by living for the moment, not for some obscure future or some romanticized past?

I don’t want to give the story away!  Do yourselves a favor and run down to your local Barnes and Noble and purchase it, or just go online and download it to your Nook or Kindle.  Now.

I have even provided a link! You can buy it through Barnes and Noble here

Check out more info on Ray Bradbury at http://www.raybradbury.com