Something Wicked This Way Comes - Weekend Group Read _July 7 & 8

In tribute to Ray Bradbury, everyone interested is welcome to join in on this weekend's group read of Something Wicked This Way Comes. Some will be reading this for the first time and some will be re-reading this gem.

Please remember to announce in bold if you're about to post any spoilers in your comments, in consideration of those who have yet to read this book.

Enjoy... and I'm looking forward to all the shared insights and comments into this book.

Count me in! I'm glad you posted in your thread, I had forgotten.

Caught me just in time...haven't started a new book and have switched it up to join this group!

Is that the right touchstone? I couldnt see an author there. not that I can join in this time anyway, but like to stick my nose in anyway :)

I'm ready!

Thanks Caro! You da best! I started listening today and loved it immediately. I love the tone Bradbury sets.

I've got my copy of Something Wicked This Way Comes off the shelf - will start reading sometime soon;)

Thanks for setting this up Caro.

Megan - yes, I just checked the touchstone and it goes to the book by Ray Bradbury. Maybe there was a glitch when you clicked on it? If there was, the glitch appears to be fixed now.

http://www.librarything.com/work/edit/87445525?referpage=addbooks.php

Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Avon; 1ST edition (March 1, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0380729407
ISBN-13: 978-0380729401
Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.9 x 6.8 inches

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Some nights, abed, Will put his ear to the wall to listen and if his folks talked things that were right,
he stayed, and if not he turned away. If it was about time and the passing of years, or himself...

Yes, I remember that being true for me as well. It wasn't my parents, but my fram and her family who spoke the true things...

We have common cause against the night. You start with little common causes
This is true as well.

I first read this book may years ago, and read it last about twenty years ago. I wondered how it would be this time around. Its, I feel , no less true, but infinitely more sad. And Dad was right. They do come again, not the same ones, not wearing the same clothes, or the same faces. But the do indeed come back.

eta

finished a noon.....

Ha! I remember doing that too when I was a kid ..but not putting my ear to the wall, but sneaking out of my room and lying on the landing, listening in on the murmurs of their conversation in the living room downstairs.

.............SPOILER ALERT...............SPOILER ALERT.................SPOILER ALERT.................
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Will runs because running is its own excuse. Jim runs because something's up ahead of him

I love that those 2 lines ... to me, they represent different ways to celebrate the joy of being alive.

Mostly, I didn't have to hide anywhere. I would sit in the window seat and my grandmother, and great grandmother .. and whichever men were there... would just forget about me. I would just sit and listen until I fell asleep there, or gram said it was time to go.( I had the best times with her ) They would pull me back in time to when they were young...and let me peek into howitwas.

Oh my ...Mr Eletrico ..... that scene with him makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

Just cracking the cover. Company tonight so I have to get ready, but I will do my best!

Thread's now on the wiki!

Thank you jim, dear....

I read this in a high school English class, and I'm excited to re-read it. I checked it out at the library today (where a power outage had them writing down bar code numbers by hand).

So far, I'm struck by the way Bradbury creates atmosphere with just a few words. As a Midwesterner, I know well the strange feelings that can accompany a coming storm, and I got this sense as the boys waited for the storm predicted by the lightning rod salesman.

The atmosphere of the carnival also reminds me a little of The Night Circus.

I both liked and did not like it. I found the language to be poetic and lovely, and also murky, dense, and difficult to get through.

I'll reserve more comments for later.

Porchy ... I had that same thought too... the atmosphere reminded me a little of TNC ... at first. ;-)

Bradbury's imagination is just amazing ...who else would think to have a funeral for a balloon?

Just finished - Bradbury is a genius. Loved the atmosphere he created and the way his language builds pictures in your mind. This was a scarily beautiful read. I've got some Bradbury short story collections on the shelf - I think they won't stay there long:)

I love the way Bradbury layers meaning under the stories he writes.
I have read quite a few of his works and there has never been a bad one in the bunch.

I'm on Chapter 38, nearly 2/3rds done. Wow! This is so perfectly creepy. He evokes so much with every word. The scenes with Will and his father are amazing. I cannot believe this is the 1st time reading this. Where have I been living? In a freakin' cave?
Thanks Caro & Kath, for a much needed nudge. Big Hugs!

And yes, I thought of the Night Circus too, along with a few different Stephen King tales.

It brought Night Circus to mind for me as well.. and on the 4th, I saw the last moments of an episode
of Twilight Zone called LITTLE GIRL LOST, which had to be the inspiration for POLTERGEIST, which is the
only "spooky" movie I have ever seen that really did scare me. And still does. Good ideas carried on...

It's interesting how many people must have been influenced by Bradbury. One of the reviews on the back of my copy of the book describes him as "much imitated but never matched."

POSSIBLE SPOILERS (quotes from Chapters 16 & 18)

I got about halfway through the book last night and read a few more chapters this morning. I'm fascinated by Bradbury's mix of short and long sentences. For example, the first two paragraphs of Chapter 16:

"A bad thing happened at sunset.

Jim vanished."

To me, those short breathless sentences convey uneasiness or terror. But the long winding sentences and longer paragraphs are where Bradbury really has the chance to paint a picture. For example, I love this description of Mr. Dark:

"This second man was tall as a lamp post. His pale face, lunar pockmarks denting it, cast light on those who stood below. His vest was the color of fresh blood. His eyebrows, his hair, his suit were licorice black, and the sun-yellow gem which stared from the tie pin thrust in his cravat was the same unblinking shade and bright crystal as his eyes. But in this instant, swiftly, and with utter clearness, it was the suit which fascinated Will. For it seemed woven of boar-bramble, clock-spring hair, bristle, and a sort of ever-trembling, ever-glistening, dark hemp. The suit caught light and stirred like a bed of black tweed-thorns, interminably itching, covering the man's long body with motion so it seemed he should excruciate, cry out, and tear the clothes free. Yet here he stood, moon-calm, inhabiting his itch-weed suit and watching Jim's mouth with his yellow eyes. He never looked once at Will."

Spooky!

I love how the creepiness factor escalates.

I love those 2 paras you quoted too, Porchy.

SPOILER ALERT ..........SPOILER ALERT..............SPOILER ALERT...........

And is there anyone who didn't hold their breath too when the boys were hiding under the grate?

I love Will's father's soliloquy in Chapter 39 where he thinks about love and how to describe it to the boys ... my favorite lines are : "Why weep at strangers dead by the road? They resemble friends unseen in forty years. Why laugh when clowns are hit by pies? We taste custard, we taste life".
Genius .. the man's a genius!

#25 - Yes, the part where they were hiding under the grate had me on the edge of my seat. I was glad I was reading that part during the day!

I love that Will finally started to see his father as a tall man, as opposed to a shadowy quiet man who works in the library.

And I love the image his painted in my mind of Jim, Will and Will's father running together across the meadow.

The part in the book about how the Witch was scared away and later killed made me think of the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz.

What an amazing book!

OK, I know the weekend is over, but I just finished, and I had to stop by the thread to say how much I liked the ending.

SPOILERS

I'm so glad that Will's dad played such an important role in the ending. It seems like so many book put things in the hands of the kids - Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, etc. So I have to admit that I was glad to see him join forces with Will and Jim.

#27 - I agree, Caro! That was an amazing book!

Didn't finish until today, but thoroughly enjoyed this book. As many have mentioned, just creepy enough; a great fable pointing out the eternal presence of evil. And so many stories have been developed from this book.