TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : Excellent Good Fair Poor : AUDIOCASSETTES

“The Stories of Ray Bradbury.” Read by the author. Random House. (Two cassettes.) The most histrionically skillful author since Dickens reads nine of his short stories, including “The Anthem Sprinters” (a veritable chorale of Irish accents), “The Day It Rained Forever” and “The Strawberry Window” (settlers on Mars, yearning for their Midwest front porch). The tone tends toward the breathless, but Bradbury’s sheer energy and enthusiasm are contagious and the nine tales nicely reveal his range as a fantasist whose remembrance of things future is firmly rooted in the Middle-American recent past. Information: (212) 751-2600.