A Giant Gets His Due

Grant in Oakland reports:

His dreams are awesome, always have been, and continue to be so for the eighth straight decade. On August 22, Ray Bradbury turns 90—and he’s not slowing down. Sure, he had a stroke that took away the use of his right arm, but every morning, he wakes up, calls his daughter in Arizona, and dictates his “dispatch from the Land of Nod.” According to The Los Angeles Times‘ Hero Complex blog, tomorrow “the Los Angeles City Council is scheduled to consider a resolution that would declare Ray Bradbury Week in Los Angeles, and, of course, they will vote yes.” It warms this bookseller’s heart the way L.A. has embraced a man who has lived in the same yellow house on the same tree-lined street for the last 60 years.

Top Big Top Books

Cheryl in Brentwood reports:

Today is Circus Day, commemorating the opening of the Ringling Brothers Circus in 1884. Now, I’m not a huge fan of the circus, one reason being that I think clowns are creepy. (I’m not alone on this!) And yet, some of my favorite books are about the circus: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, Circus ABC by Jason D’Aquino, and The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney. What draws me to these stories are the sideshows filled with genetically altered humans, mythical beasts, and mysterious people preying on your darkest fears and desires–which, I’m sure you’ll agree, are not nearly as creepy as clowns.

On a related note, I was recently invited to an author’s dinner for the upcoming book Creepiosity by David Bickel. Of course I had to attend (that’s me third from the left):

Fortunately there were no clowns, but I did try the chicken feet.