Ray Bradbury is everywhere

What do you plan to do for your 89th birthday? Ray Bradbury, who will leave 88 behind later this summer, plans to head to the library.

He's having a birthday celebration at the Memorial Branch Library on West Olympic in Los Angeles on Monday, Aug. 31 at 6:30 pm. The event is free, but to support the library, Bradbury's books will be for sale. He'll be happy to sign those that are purchased at the event.

And he's also pitching in to help the Venice Historical Society restore the columns along Windward Avenue. The Ray Bradbury Adopt-a-Colonnade project kicks off July 31 with desserts, Champagne and an appearance by the author himself. Tickets are $55 and $45, and the organization is hoping to raise some serious cash: a $2,500 Martian Chronicle sponsor gets a name on a plaque on a restored column; a $250 Farenheight 451 sponsor will see their name on a rock wall; and for less, you can become a Graveyard of Lunatics sponsor (naming convention still to be determined).

What with these events and his recent conversations with the Ventura County Reporter and the New York Times, you might think he'd be tired out. But since his actual birthday is on August 22, I'm convinced another birthday-slash-fun-slash-fundraising event invitation will be arriving any day now.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Ray Bradbury, right, with Veronique and Gregory Peck in 1997 at a reception celebrating the 125th anniversary of the LA Public Library. Credit: Alex Berliner/Berliner Studio.