Welcome to Litsy!

#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude

Some Martian music as I'm reading Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles/The Silver Locusts".

• Pixies, Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons: https://youtu.be/DNtRoTB9gB4?si=W3aQeCyRkMAnB-z_

• David, Life on Mars?: https://youtu.be/AZKcl4-tcuo?si=l8cGA2jX8a-E8iSY

• Camille, Mars is No Fun: https://youtu.be/_hvDvMk4S-o?si=ipW3XGWXYk1V7kkP

• Marc, Ballrooms of Mars: https://youtu.be/X46oHcSa5RA?si=IwgXLAY6zSHSFqhh

#ClassicLSFBC

The #ClassicLSFBC pick for January is Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles", which I've read before in the Harper edition in the middle, and the GN version on the left.
While I've had it longer, I've not yet read the UK version, titled (after one of the stories) "The Silver Locusts", so I'll be using that one for the group read.
The contents are slightly different to the US edition: it drops "The Fire Balloons' and adds "Usher II", so I'll ⬇️

Sci-Fi‘s not really my jam, but I tend to like Bradbury more than I don‘t. This one was… fine? I really wanted to like it more, but it felt too disjointed for me (par for the course for short story collections, but I think some more common threads would have really helped this one be more impactful). I respect it as a classic and for what it was trying to do, but ultimately not for me. ⬇️

My last #roll100 for Oct! 👽

Today I learned that Bradbury was inspired to write The Martian Chronicles after reading Winesburg, Ohio. I just read Winesburg, Ohio back in May, so this was a delightful surprise 🤓. So much intersection occurring in my reading life right now!

This is a classic. And if this genre is your jam, definitely go for it. This has been lingering in my library account for years. So it is no longer the oldest thing on my list.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

I‘m not big into sci-fi but this was great! Enjoyed the audio version!

#bookspinbingo - free space
#booked2022 - involves an exploration

An anthology of Martian tales. While it seems to follow some chronology - Martians existing without humans, their first contact and eventually the last settlement - they vary enough to seem like either different takes on Mars, or of unreliable narrators. Interesting either way.

I love Bradbury and his bleak outlooks on humanity so, so much ♥️♥️♥️

This is a very short book at 181 pages, but it's very complex and just goes to show how much of a literary genius Bradbury was.

This was absolutely brilliant and such a pleasure to read.

Check out my full review on https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3146481632 🚀

3.75⭐️

Science has advanced to a point where interplanetary space travel is now possible. With political tensions heating up on Earth, America starts to send a number of expeditions to Mars in hopes of finding a new place to expand society to and colonize. Set up in a chronological format of short stories, we learn about Martians, the impacts of colonization, and what happens when technology advances faster than what human society is ready for.

These chronicles are really a set of short stories, carefully strung together to make a somewhat chronological timeline. As with any collection some are very very strong, some eh, but on the whole quite an interesting collection that I enjoyed as a whole. My only complaint, as I switched between versions was the editing in the new version; dates pushed forward to be in our future time, and a very strong story that was removed for racism.

When you are reading the ebook version, but switch to the audio version on hoopla for your drive & find a whole new short story that wasn‘t in the other version. I‘m sure “Way in the Middle of the Air" was left out of some versions for the N- word/racism, but it‘s set in the American south, when all the African Americans (along with all Africans) build their own rockets and leave for Mars, annoying the locals. It‘s a great story about racism ⤵️

Some dated views especially towards women (such as men escaping Earth to get away from “bad wives” ) but these vignettes are also prescient in some ways. Additionally this is a look at how humankind has little regard for the health of our planets and those residing on them.

#authoramonth2020

This section made me sit up and notice! Bradbury is writing about book censorship, and goes on for a few more pages. The Martian Chronicles (what I‘m reading) was published before Fahrenheit 451, so clearly he expanded on this book burning theme with the latter novel. #authoramonth2020

Eerie, lyrical story collection that keeps you engaged to the end—listened to audio which was great

#authoramonth2020 @Soubhiville

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

Only tangentially book related, but I‘m pretty sure I somehow woke up on Mars this morning. My bedroom was in almost total darkness well past sunrise, with an eerie red light filtering through the blinds. Took this photo of the San Francisco skyline at 11 AM - yes AM as in morning! Can this bonkers year please just stop?!!
#dystopianaf

The Martian Chronicles is an interesting look at Bradbury‘s short stories, specifically the ones about Mars and his imagining do what we would find there upon travel and colonization. I especially loved this audiobook edition as Bradbury provides commentary and insight to each story in between. #AuthorAMonth

🎧 This is a 70 year old book & politically incorrect. This sci-fi story really magnifies how far we‘ve come with our imaginations in relation to Martian sci-fi. From magically impossible to the scientific reality of The Martian by AW.

Mark Boyett narrates the story so it feels like a 1950 radio play. Warning: antiquated language & racism & echoes of Fahrenheit 451, more evidence that we‘ve come a long way! Free Hoopla loan. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📖 The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)
✍️ China Miéville
🎞️ The Maltese Falcon
🥁 Ministry
🎶 March of the Pigs (Nine Inch Nails)

Some of Bradbury‘s finest work involves the colonization of Mars by humans fleeing from a troubled and eventually atomically devastated Earth, and the conflict between aboriginal Martians and the new colonists. Published in 1950s

#farfromhome #jamminjune

#BiblioMAYnia #setinouterspace
One from my shelves.

I‘m not quite sure how I feel about this one. It was good but there‘s a lot to unpack about colonization, race relations, and war. I‘ve been putting this one off for a while so I‘m glad it was my #BookSpin #DoubleSpin pick. @TheAromaofBooks
#BuriedAliveChallenge

Just hanging out with Simon and my book today.
#CatsOfLitsy

Within the last five years I‘ve started to read this book and somehow wandered off and never got past the first two stories twice now. Hopefully third time is the charm as this is April‘s #DoubleSpin pick.

1. I like both, but I lean toward soft sci-fi. I'm more interested in the social and psychological aspects than the hardcore math and science parts.
2. The Martian Chronicles
3. The story has to make me think, provoke my curiosity and leave me wanting to explore. A lot of science-fiction is eye-candy, enjoyable but empty calories. The best SF gives you a sense of awe, the sense of a bigger universe.

@ozma.of.oz #sundayfunday

This one is written as series of vignettes about man trying to colonize Mars. For me some stories were better than others. I particularly liked the ones that had a bit of a horror feel to them, like The Third Expedition. Bradbury‘s commentary on humanity is still relevant today, IMO.

This was my February #Bookspin which I finished on March 6. 🤪

My 9th grader‘s recent reads
#teensread #raisingreaders

Here is my #Bookspin pick for February! I probably won‘t get to it until middle of the month. I really love this idea, Sarah! Next month I might try the double spin option. 🙂

I borrowed your pick photo. I hope that‘s okay. @TheAromaofBooks

#whatyoulove

#selfimprovementseptember

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

There are almost no words for how amazing this book is. A series of vignettes, doing what science fiction does best, making sharp commentary about its present (not unlike our present, roughly 70 years after it was written) through the lens of the future, how the progression of technology does not necessarily (and in fact rarely) have a corresponding progression of society and how humanity deals with itself.

I switched from audio to print because this book is too good to read at someone else's pace.

Finally! It took 7 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS for this to get to me, and I'm not going to make the person behind me in line wait any longer than they have to! #audiobook #Libby

I placed a hold on The Martian Chronicles audiobook on July 10, and I'm still waiting. It's not a very long book??? There were only 4 people ahead of me??? Did all 4 keep it the max 2 weeks??? Well, I promise to the 6 behind me not to take such a long time with it! #Libby #LibraryEtiquette

I‘ve read various stories from this, but never the whole thing at once. I‘m so excited to get to it! 👽🚀🛸

What a great book!! #themartianchronicles #sifi #penelopethedog

Sci-fi isn‘t really my thing, but this is the best kind of sci-fi. This is a cautionary tale about where humanity may be headed (literally and figuratively). Told as a series of vignettes, some merely a few paragraphs and others short-story-length, the chronicles span Earth‘s invasion of Mars from the first expedition to the last escapees from a dying Earth.

Way in the Middle of the Air should be required reading, if not the entire story.

So much more than the blurb describes, Ray Bradbury‘s book is a commentary on humanity itself - humanity‘s sense of entitlement and our treatment of our planet and species, as well as humanity‘s treatment of another planet and species. By the end, our species has nearly ruined not one, but two, planets and almost brought two species to the brink of extinction - but Bradbury still gives us some hope. Sci-fi classic. 4.0/5.0 ⭐️ #2019

I am so excited about these copies of The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man! I buy a lot of books from ThriftBooks and you never can tell what condition they are going to be in. These are almost perfect condition and are the paperback editions from the 1970s. So cool! 📚❤️#thriftbooks #sciencefiction

“Mars was a distant shore, and the men spread upon it in waves. Each wave different, and each wave stronger.”

Original and strange, this is a brilliantly written book of connected stories by an extraordinary storyteller. If you‘re a fan of Bradbury, or a lover of sci-fi/fantasy, and haven‘t yet read this, I highly recommend it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Most of you will know this one..

🚀🌌

#raybradbury
#sciencefiction

#24in48 Hour 42 challenge: Swiss Army Book Rec!

This is one of my absolute favorite books of all time and I will continue to push it onto people until the day I am swallowed up by the rising ocean.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ray Bradbury has such a dreamy tone it makes the macabre and scary seem beautiful and right. I always love reading stories that take place in the future but were written in the past, the future of the past I call it, only enhanced by my love for dystopian sci-fi. I think it's an important reflection on the misguided ideals of the past and present, foreboding and comforting at the same time. A must read in my opinion.

“For gods sake, what are you doing?”

“I‘m being ironic. Don‘t interrupt a man in the midst of being ironic. It‘s not polite.”

Such an elegant an poetically painful way of illustrating that point in his books.

“Everything that was not so, must go. All the beautiful literary lies and flights of fancy must be shot in midair. So, they lined them up, against the library wall, one Sunday morning… And shot them down. And burned the paper castles and the fairy frogs, and old kings, and the people who lived happily ever after...”

She wanted very much to sit quietly here, soundless, not moving until this thing occurred, this thing expected all day. This thing that could not occur, but might.