BRAINPAN LEAKAGE

I was younger than my own daughter is now. I had the same ravenous appetite for literature as she, and books were my escape from the bullying, as well as the sometimes overwhelming banality of the outside world. I had just returned from a trip to the local drug store with my mother. I had shiny quarters, nickels, and dimes in hand when we left on the excursion – my allowance earned by taking out the trash and other odd jobs around the house. Now that we returned the lion’s share of that allowance was gone, but now I held in my hand a paperback book from the spinning rack at the corner of the pharmacy. I had already devoured a chapter or two while my mother waited for her prescription to be filled and while on the ride home. This was a new kind of book. A new kind of genre. And it spoke to me.

Upon arriving home I showed my prize to my father, exclaiming with excitement that I had discovered a new type of book. One that he had surely never heard of before – Science Fiction. He looked at the paperback and scanned the back cover.

“You know, Science Fiction was around when I was a kid, too,” he told me.

I was in awe. This stuff had been out there? Why hadn’t I been informed? “Really?” I asked.

“Sure,” he replied. “H. G. Wells, Jules Verne… The list goes on and on. You know what? There’s a book I think you’d enjoy…” He rummaged around in the shelves and pulled out a copy of The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury, then told me, “This was always one of my favorites.”

…And thus was my introduction to one of the greatest SF/Fantasy authors of all time.

I was fortunate enough to have met Ray Bradbury many years ago when I was still an “aspiring author in search of a publisher,” and he was on a book tour. I not only had him sign a book for me, but one for my father as well. I will always remember that.

Mr. Bradbury died this morning at the age of 91. He will be sorely missed, but he left this world a far more interesting place by being the man who illustrated it for us with his words.

http://io9.com/5916175/rip-ray-bradbury-author-of-fahrenheit-451-and-the-martian-chronicles

So I was hangin’ with the band the other day and we were all like, “Doood… We should do a best of album…”

And I was like, “Doooodddd! That idea rocks!”

And EK was like, “Dooooooddd. I’ll be on the cover…”

And we were all like, “Dooooodette, that’s hot!”

So, anyway, enough with that crap…

I’m working on a project. Nothing earth shattering, really. Just a sort of compilation thing. A “Best Of Brainpan Leakage” e-book – FREE of course – that will contain a whole mess of the favorite posts, as determined by YOU, the readers of BL. It will also contain some new material not available anywhere but in the e-book. Yes, as in, “BL blog posts that have never been posted.”

Cool, eh?

At any rate, here’s the deal: I need you folks to tell me your favorite posts. WHICH missives out of the archives should be included?

So far we have votes for:

1. Stacking The Dex
2. Gimme Mai Shooz!
3. Awww, Dad!
4. The Gramling Party
5. Dippity Drink
6. The Day the Sky Stood Still
7. Walking to Skool
8. Meatloaf
9. And MANY MANY others…

This is your chance to have some input. Tell me your faves, and they just might make it into the Brainpan Chronicles…

More to come…

Murv