The Illustrated Man

Photo Credit: www.amazon.com

Earlier this year I read an incredible biography of Ray Bradbury entitled: "The Bradbury Chronicles". It is one of the best biographies I've ever read. After reading it, I feel like I knew Bradbury the man. Plus one cool part is the author of the book is a professor at Columbia College here in Chicago, and I was able to interview him for the new season of my podcast 'The Looking Glass'.

Anyways, after I finished reading the biography, I thought it would be fun to go and read one of Bradbury's books. So the book I selected is 'The Illustrated Man'. It's a collection of short stories that are interconnected in an interesting manner. The stories in the book are "tattoos" on a traveling man, and the proceed to tell their stories to a hiker at night.

It's an incredible book. I'm utterly blown away with how great Bradbury is at short stories. Many of the stories in "The Illustrated Man" are emotional, frightening, unnerving, happy, and hard hitting. One of the things that Sam Weller, author of "the Bradbury Chronicles", told me in our interview is that he believes Bradbury will be mentioned in the same breathe as Poe, Hemingway, and Shakespeare. After reading "Illustrated Man", and earlier the "Martian Chronicles" and "Fahrenheit 451", I must say, I agree with that statement.