And he left on the Transit of Venus

This morning I heard that Ray Bradbury died. One of the responses on BoingBoing was that he left this mortal coil at an appropriately "science fiction like" moment.

I don't remember the first Bradbury I read. It was probably one of his 'juveniles' at either my public library or my high school library, and would have been consumed together with the others of SF's "BACH quartet".

I don't remember exactly which of his books I read first, but I do remember learning how to use the card catalogue to see if there were any more of his books at my library. The one story of his that seems to be getting a mention today is "Farenheit451". But I think it was one of his shorter stories that I read first.

I do remember having to sneak into the “adult” section of the public library to borrow some of his books, along with the more 'adult' Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein's, and being puzzled because their writing was so easy to get my head around.

I stumbled acros a meme this afternoon asking which book one would choose to be, should “Farenheit 451” actually occur. I think most people would go for the high profile books, but having lurked in some ancient libraries in my time, I think I would try to remember something by an author closer to home ... somebody local to me like Winton, Jolley or Bedford.