10 Authors Ray Bradbury Recommends You to Read

Read these authors if you want to become a better writer

During his 2001 keynote address at Point Loma Nazarene University’s Writer’s Symposium By the Sea, Ray Bradbury talked about what he called “The Hygiene of Writing” so future writers wouldn’t do anything wrong during the following year.

With a set of writing tips, from what to write, a daily plan, how to keep away negative friends, and especially how to choose your writing heroes. The author taught the importance of metaphors in your writing and where to use them.

Below, I summarize what Bradbury said to the students at Point Loma and what authors you should read to become better writers.

The first thing that comes to mind is the danger of writing novels

Don’t start writing a novel, for they take too long, and it might not turn out well because you haven’t learned to write. Instead, for beginners or intermediate writers, I recommend writing many short stories.

If you write one short story a week, no matter the quality, you’ll start and practice. At the end of the year, you’ll have 52 short stories, and I defy you to write 52 bad ones.

It can’t be done. At the end of 30 or 40 weeks, suddenly, a story will come that is just wonderful. Write 52 or 104 short stories, and you’re learning your craft.

To do so, learn from the classics — they all deal with metaphors. The sooner you recognize the ability to see a metaphor, know how to write them, and make collections of them, the better off you’ll be for the novel.

I don’t know how to teach you to recognize a metaphor when you see it, but what you’ve got to do from this night forward is stuff your head with more different things from various fields.

Learn how to write from famous authors, and read numerous short stories from those who mastered the craft.

— Ray Bradbury’s 2001 keynote address at Point Loma Nazarene University

After hearing Bradbury’s comments and recommendations, I began reading those authors and discovered they all have a fantastic way of writing metaphors.

As communication consultants, we teach people who want to give an unforgettable presentation or speech to visualize images in their minds. While reading these books, I discovered they all have a remarkable way of conjuring up images in your mind, thereby capturing your imagination and attention at all times.

As Bradbury suggests, to master the craft, you have to learn from those who have already mastered the zen in writing. Take your time to read some of these books and learn while you enjoy some of the world’s literature gems.

Here is the list of the authors Bradbury suggested you should read, and some of their stories

Edgar Allan Poe

• The Black Cat Published on August 19, 1843. In the story, an unnamed narrator has a strong affection for pets until he starts abusing them. One day, after his favorite black cat scratches him, he kills the feline, who returns to haunt him.
• The Cask of Amontillado Published November 1846. It is a story about a man who takes revenge on a friend who insulted him and conceived a plan to bury him alive.
• The Fall of the House of Usher Published in 1839. An unnamed narrator arrives at the estate of his boyhood friend Roderick Usher to discover the house seems absorbed with evil and disease.

Edith Wharton

• The Age of Innocence Published in 1920, it is the first novel written by a woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It tells the story of Newland Archer, a young lawyer who is about to marry virginal socialite May Welland in the 1870s New York. One day he meets her cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, and falls in love with her, resulting in a love triangle in which May has the worst part.
• The House of Mirth (1905) tells the story of a well-born but impoverished New York City woman, reaching her 29th year, an age when her marital prospects are becoming limited.

Eudora Welty

• The Optimist’s Daughter This is the story of a young woman who travels to New Orleans to care for her dying father, confronting death and her past, depicting a poetic study of human relations.

Herman Melville

• Moby Dick It is the story of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, searching for revenge on the albino sperm whale Moby Dick, which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab’s ship and severed his leg at the knee.

John Cheever

• The Enormous Radio It is the story of Jim and Irene Westcott, who live on the 12th floor in an apartment near Sutton Place and love to listen to music on their radio until it breaks down. Jim buys a new one that, besides being ugly, sometimes plays the conversations of their other apartment neighbors.
• The Swimmer It is the story of Neddy Merrill, who one day, on a warm summer day, returns home by swimming in what he calls “the Lucinda River,” comprising all the pools in the neighborhood. As his journey progresses, his neighbor’s stories become darker.

Katherine Anne Porter

• Flowering Judas Set during the Mexican Revolution (1920) recounts the stories of a beautiful American teacher as she helps local children and clandestine works for the revolutionary cause while facing faces the loss of her ideals.
• Pale Horse, Pale Rider The story is about the relationship between Miranda, a newspaperwoman, and a soldier named Adam. Set in Denver during the influenza epidemic of 1918.
• The Leaning Tower and Other Stories Published in 1934, this is a collection of short stories painting the racial inequities in the south, including stories such as “The Leaning Tower,” “The Old Order,” “The Downward Path to Wisdom,” and the one that gives the name to the book.

Richard Matheson

• I Am Legend It is the story of Robert Neville, the last living man on Earth hunting by day vampire lairs from men and women, transformed by a virus, craving Neville’s blood. By night, he barricades in his home, praying for the dawn.
• What Dreams May Come After Chris Neilson suddenly dies and goes to Heaven, he finds out his inconsolable wife commits suicide and goes to hell. That is when he risks his soul in order to go to the infra world to search for her spirit.
• Bid Time Return During a trip to the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island, Michigan, Chicago playwright Richard Collier finds the photo of Elise McKenna, a turn-of-the-century actress. Richard becomes obsessed and decides to travel in time through hypnosis to meet Elise.

Roald Dahl

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Charlie Bucket, a poor boy, living in a one-room house with his parents and four grandparents, finds a golden ticket to visit Willy Wonka’s fabulous chocolate factory. A trip that will change his life forever.
• The Witches On a trip with his grandmother, a young boy fights the Grand High Witch and her coven, whose only mission in life is to turn children into mice and squelch as many as they possibly can. Can a single boy beat the century-old witch and her minions?
• Matilda Matilda Wormwood is a little girl with a magical mind whose father thinks she’s a scab, and her mother is always absent playing bingo, leaving her with Miss Trunchbull, a bully teacher convinced all her pupils are rotten and should be locked in the Chokey. But Matilda had enough, and she will teach them a lesson they’ll never forget.

Tom Collier

• Tom’s A-Cold Can you imagine what would have happened if World War I did not end until it destroyed civilization? In England, after the war ruins, small groups of people struggle to survive and restart the world.
• His Monkey Wife A schoolmaster named Mr. Fatigay, working in Africa, meets a chimpanzee named Emily, a student willing to learn and better herself through knowledge. After countless days in the classroom, the chimp falls in love with her teacher. When Mr. Fatigay’s tenure ends, and he returns to England to marry his fiance, Emily is by his side, creating a peculiar love triangle.

Washington Irwin

• Rip Van Winkle It is the story of a colonial American villager who falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains, waking up 20 years later, missing, among other things the American Revolution. But if you haven’t heard about Rip Van Winkle, probably as he, you’ve fallen asleep for decades.
• Sleepy Hollow One of the most famous Halloween stories is about a teacher named Ichabod Crane, who arrives at the village of Sleepy Hollow and meets Katrina van Tassel. When he courts her, a Headless Horseman begins to haunt her.

Take away

If you want to master the craft, you must read from the masters. Read them, learn from them, look for the metaphors in their work, and make them your pals, companions, and friends, but never copy them. All of them have their style, and so do you.

As Bradbury explained during the 2001 keynote address: “ I recommend you read one poem a night from the vast history of poetry. Read the great poets, read Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, Robert Frost, and Bernard Shaw’s essays. One poem a night, short story, or essay a night for the next 1000 nights.

Make a list of 10 things you’ll love madly and write about them. Then make a list of 10 things you hate and kill them with your words.”

“Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.” — Ray Bradbury