Helen Lowe. On Anything, Really... Author Helen Lowe
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An Idea from (the Great) Ray Bradbury, 1920 – 2012

Posted in Fun Stuff, General, Other Writers by Helen Lowe
Apr 07 2025

I’m a Ray Bradbury fan. No, not just Fahrenheit 451 — though it’s a brilliant book and also (sadly) very topical right now — but also short story collections like The Golden Apples of the Sun.

I read it a long time ago, but still think about several of the stories, so I guess that counts as “influential.”

So I was very interested to spot this Bradbury quote on reading, oot thar in interwebs land. It was featured by a T’verse inhabitant, Boze The Library Owl, aka @SketchesByBoze. (You all get the Dickens reference, right? 😀 )

“I’ll give you a program to follow every night. For the next thousand nights, before you go to bed, read one short story. That’ll take you ten minutes, fifteen minutes. Then read one poem a night from the vast history of poetry … Read the great poets, go back and read Shakespeare, read Alexander Pope, read Robert Frost. One poem a night, one short story a night, one essay a night, for the next 1,000 nights. From various fields: archaeology, zoology, biology, all the great philosophers of time … I want you to read essays in every field. Every night, before you go to bed, you’re stuffing your head with one poem, one short story, one essay—at the end of a thousand nights, you’ll be full of stuff, won’t you?”

Waddya reckon? Are you game? It’s definitely an interesting idea…

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Comments
  • Gail Halsted:

    Hi there just wondering when we will get an update on the book.
    It’s nearly two years since you advised it was finished

    April 8, 2025 at 10:54
    • Helen Lowe:

      Promises, promises, “I know” — but soon for that update, Gail. And (more promises!), it will be one of reasonable substance.

      I shall not tell you to “watch this space”, because I know you are doing that, but I have all digits pretzelled, though no firm promises for exactitude, that it will be “in-or-around” a month.

      April 9, 2025 at 21:22

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