Ray Bradbury to Speak in Long Beach Book War

Ray Bradbury will make a special guest appearance this Saturday, September 6, 2008, at the Long Beach Main Public Library in California to speak about the future of libraries and the importance of books.

You see, Bradbury is involved in a budget battle that could shutter the Long Beach Main Public Library as part of a bureaucratic proposal to close a $16.9 million city budget deficit. Bradbury voiced his strong opposition to the proposal in a recent Long Beach Press-Telegram letter to the editor, featured in our blog post of August 22.

To learn more about the Long Beach book war, please read “Ray Bradbury joins fight to save Long Beach Library,” a blog post at the Los Angeles Times, and “Ray Bradbury will speak in support of Long Beach Main Library Saturday,” an article in the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

Also, we note that the library’s 1958 Doubleday edition of Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles is currently checked out. It’s due back on September 23!