# More Ray Bradbury available on Kindle



## WalterK (Mar 2, 2009)

During my usual perusal of all things SF in Amazon's Kindle listings I found these newly listed works...

   

I am extremely pleased to see more classic SF making its inexorable (I hope  ) way to Kindle.

- Walter...


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## Francis (Jun 23, 2009)

Haven't read these in a bit. Might have to nip a few.


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

Warning, these are probably illegal copies, upload as a protest to Bradbury's derogatory comments about the Internet and ebooks. Read article at Teleread: Ray Bradbury hates e-books. I don't know for sure that these books are illegal, but it is a good guess. I'd buy them in a heartbeat if they're real.


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## mwvickers (Jan 26, 2009)

Has anyone contacted Amazon CS about it?  They should be able to find out if they are legitimate.


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## CS (Nov 3, 2008)

I wouldn't be surprised if they are illegal. They're really lazy and shoddy productions - no cover or TOC, fonts that change for no reason, etc.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I didn't realize that Ray Bradbury was still alive!  According to the article, he's 89.  Guess being that old, he can't appreciate new things.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

mlewis78 said:


> I didn't realize that Ray Bradbury was still alive! According to the article, he's 89. Guess being that old, he can't appreciate new things.


That's a kind of an agist comment!


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## tbsteph (May 3, 2009)

How would an "illegal" copy of any book be available via the Kindle store?  Has it happened before?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Oh yeah. . . .anyone can take the book and scan it or re-type it and publish it themselves.  A couple of Harry Potter's were listed last fall. . . . .they didn't last long.  Amazon can't police everything as it's uploaded, but they will act to take 'em down when they learn they are not authorized.

And for authors who are notorious for not being available in e-format, Amazon makes a big deal when they do come around.  Happened with Grisham earlier this year.  I'd put Bradbury and Rand down as authors that Amazon would make a big deal about if the editions were legitimate.


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## Dori (Oct 28, 2008)

mlewis78 said:


> I didn't realize that Ray Bradbury was still alive! According to the article, he's 89. Guess being that old, he can't appreciate new things.


 I appreciate new things, even new old antiques. Maybe in another 12 years though I will change.


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

That'll teach me to read the whole thread before buying. I got all 4 because I like Bradbury. I'll report any weird formatting in the weird formatting thread.

Edward C. Patterson


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> That's a kind of an agist comment!


Well, that was my reaction to the article. I'm not young! Should I have said that his attitude does not have anything to do with his age? Not all 89 yr. olds share his opinion about kindle and many would likely appreciate it more than small-print books. I really didn't know that he was still alive. I read some of his books way back when.

I'm not convinced that these ebooks are pirated. That's speculation. (Perhaps but not certainly.)


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## Elmore Hammes (Jun 23, 2009)

WalterK said:


> During my usual perusal of all things SF in Amazon's Kindle listings I found these newly listed works...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I loved Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles - two of my all-time favorites. I must admit I always had a hard time getting through Dandelion Wine. A personal defect, I am sure 

Elmore


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

I downloaded a sample of Fahrenheit 451. It was weird.... The first page looked OK, then beyond that it was obviously a Topaz format, and it looked awful.


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## Steph H (Oct 28, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> And for authors who are notorious for not being available in e-format, Amazon makes a big deal when they do come around. Happened with Grisham earlier this year.


Do you mean Tom Clancy? Because as far as I can tell, Grisham still isn't out on Kindle (despite repeated comments earlier this year that ebooks were coming). Just didn't want to get anyone's hopes up if you meant someone else... 

(Sorry to ding you in both threads, but wanted to make sure you saw it and if necessary fixed it both places. )


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Clancy was the other one who was a hold out. . . .I hadn't looked but I thought someone had posted here a while ago that Grisham was available now.  I'd read them all before in paper anyway and didn't have any real desire to read an e-book so never looked close.  But yeah, Clancy and Grisham were the two hold outs. . . .sounds like maybe Grisham still is, or else his publishers are just having trouble getting their rears in gear.


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The Bradbury formatting is mostly in courier, which is disconcerting. Glad they were cheap, but I don;t know if they were pirated. If Amazon determines that they were uploaded against the law, does that make all our downloads of copies contraband? Will the police confiscate my DX, becuase if I go to jail, I want my Kindle there, because the prison library will be of so hand-me-down.

Edward C. Patterson


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## gdae23 (Apr 30, 2009)

I downloaded the sample for The Martian Chronicles, a favorite book of mine, and it was such a formatting mess, I ended up deleting it without reading very much. I'd be inclined to agree that this is an illegal version. The price also seemed too low -  $1.99 for well known books by a well known author. I also have read a few interviews/articles in which Ray Bradbury indicated his strong dislike of eBooks. (Still hoping he'll come around though.)


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## Elmore Hammes (Jun 23, 2009)

I've sent an e-mail to the address at Harper Collins listed on http://www.raybradbury.com/index.html - I will repost if I get a response.

Elmore


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

I looked at the Bradbury and the other books 'published' by Synergy House Publications.  They are all major name authors and pretty cheap.  I googled Synergy and didn't come up with any good results.

I'm guessing something is rotten ...


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I just checked out the Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged published for the Kindle on the same day as the Bradbiry (didn't download it) against the paper version. 1st there's no cross reference to the Kindle, and Dutton still holds a first copyright on the print version. I believe Synergy may be pirating. I could be wrong.

Ed Patterson


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## Forster (Mar 9, 2009)

The Ayn Rand books have been pulled, suspect the Bradbury one's won't be far behind.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

i've never tagged a book on Amazon before but I added a "probably pirated" tag to the Martian Chronicles


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

If the Bradbury books are in fact pirated, what is our leal responsibility beyond deleing them from our Kindles? I know, as an author, I would want pirated copies of my books obliterated on all platforms (and I'd sue the pirates under th copyright laws).

Edward C. Patterson


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

OK, now you all have me convinced that these are probably pirated.  I haven't bought any of them.  One of you Bradbury fans should let us know if any of his work becomes legitimately kindlized.


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## Neekeebee (Jan 10, 2009)

mlewis78 said:


> I didn't realize that Ray Bradbury was still alive! According to the article, he's 89. Guess being that old, he can't appreciate new things.


  Bradbury did a book signing/fund-raiser at the local library a couple of years ago, and gave a very nice (and entertaining) talk about how he got started in writing. It was great to hear him speak, especially since I remember him coming to talk at a Young Author's Conference sponsored by our school district when I was about 10.

N


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

Bradbury grew up in the town I live in now... Waukegan IL.... My friends have a mirror he wrote about in one of his novels... At the time it had been in a local soda shop.... I think the novel was _Dandelion Wine_, but he's written so many of them I could be mistaken. He is still much loved here; they do a Dandelion Wine Festival every Summer.


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## Null (May 20, 2009)

I bought the four available from Amazon, kind of thankful that they were so cheap--but yes, the formatting leaves a lot to be desired.  I'm only a few pages into "Something Wicked" and noted (against my paper copy) that paragraphs have no indentation and sometimes seem mashed together, italics are gone, and on the first paragraph there's a misspelled word ("schoool").  It's readable for the price.

Has anyone determined if these are illegal?  If so I'll delete them and ask Amazon for my money back.


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## CS (Nov 3, 2008)

Null said:


> I bought the four available from Amazon, kind of thankful that they were so cheap--but yes, the formatting leaves a lot to be desired. I'm only a few pages into "Something Wicked" and noted (against my paper copy) that paragraphs have no indentation and sometimes seem mashed together, italics are gone, and on the first paragraph there's a misspelled word ("schoool"). It's readable for the price.
> 
> Has anyone determined if these are illegal? If so I'll delete them and ask Amazon for my money back.


I'd say they're most likely illegal, because the Rand books (by the same "publishing company") got pulled already.


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## Greg Banks (May 2, 2009)

Has anyone reported them? I really think they should be reported for the horrible formatting, if nothing else.


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## Forster (Mar 9, 2009)

Greg Banks said:


> Has anyone reported them? I really think they should be reported for the horrible formatting, if nothing else.





Elmore Hammes said:


> I've sent an e-mail to the address at Harper Collins listed on http://www.raybradbury.com/index.html - I will repost if I get a response.
> 
> Elmore


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## Null (May 20, 2009)

I've paged through all four of them.  Farenheit, Dandelion and Martian Chronicles are readable.  The paragraphs are correct, but the font is courier and all formatting (like italics) are indicated by underlining.  Just for fun, I went to location 1000 (49%) on Farenheit and the font was back to the typical Kindle font.  (Not sure what that is, actually.)  I wondered if that meant the rest of the font had been "reset" but no, still courier.  Like I said, readable but not ideal.

Something Wicked, on the other hand...wow.  If you'd read this book many times, as I have, you'll need that memory to help you along.  Tbe font is the standard Kindle one, but formatting is non-existant and the paragraph-layout is heartbreaking.  It's as if they had to pay for every new paragraph, so they just said "Oh, heck, just make huge paragraphs with a break every random now-and-then.  Who cares if it's conversation?  I'm not paying those paragraph fees!"  If you've read Bradbury, you know that his language uses an ebb and flow that rides the paragraph sizes almost perfectly.  With that gone, if you've never read Something Wicked, you'll find it a hard slog and probably wonder why people regard it highly.  (Of the four Bradbury books, this was the one I most wanted.  Well damn.)

Perhaps, if Bradbury really does dislike e-books...well, perhaps he did authorize these, so people would say, "Ebooks?  No thanks, they're stinky!  I tried one of Ray Bradbury's books and it made me so sad I ate an entire pound cake!"  It would make a nice companion story to "The Pedestrian."


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

The Martian Chronicles and Farenheit 451 have been pulled, apparently.  I would suspect the other two are not far behind....pretty good evidence, I would say....

I will not be buying the other two.  

Betsy


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

So Betsy, do we delete the books from our Kindles in deference to Bradbury?

Edward C. Patterson


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I leave it to your conscience.  As a visual artist, I respect others' copyright as I hope they will respect mine.



Betsy


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I will give my work away rather than see my copyright violated by pirates. I'm also niffed that I was duped and bought all 4.

Edward C. Patterson


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Hope nobody minds if I briefly hitch a ride on this thread, since it seems to have pulled together a bunch of Bradbury fans...  I'm hoping somebody can identify one of his stories for me.

Short story, read about 30 years ago.  I have no idea whether it was part of an anthology or maybe a stand-alone in a magazine or something.

There's a guy who's kind of a loner and he likes to watch the wind swirl leaves around and even gives the wind a name, I think (maybe "Kit"? or maybe that was the guy's name), and then one day some people attack him and he calls on the wind and the wind "defends" him somehow...  The details are VERY fuzzy but I was trying to tell someone about the story recently and would like to re-read it.  Does anybody know the title of it?  

Thanks!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Yes, Ed, I'm a Bradbury fan, and am glad our great members alerted me to the possibility that these were bootleg before I bought them.  I do find it ironic that someone who could write such marvelous tales of space travel would be against the technology of ebooks, but that's his right.

Susan, don't know the story you're talking about, perhaps another of our very knowledgeable members will!

Betsy


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