Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 was first published in 1953. It is one of those books that for some reason I was never required to read in high school or college. For that reason, I am trying to read a few of these classics each year. I was not sure what to expect as I am really not into futuristic books, however this book blew me away with its accuracy of predictions some 55+ years after it was first published.

Fahrenheit 451 details the eternal war between censorship and freedom of thought and continues to be relevant today more than ever. In Bradbury's future, books are illegal and happily so--citizens are too busy watching their wall-sized televisions and listening to their in-ear "seashell" radios to care about the loss of good literature. Guy Montag begins the novel as a fireman who enforces the temperature of the title--that at which books burn--but then transforms and tries to show his society the mistake of censorship. It's a treat to hear Bradbury read his own work, almost as if a wise elder were sharing a cautionary tale. Sometimes the slower pace seems awkward for a novel of such action, but overall the reading does justice to the timeless classic.

A standard in the dystopian utopia that Brave New World and 1984 also capture, this is the third in a triad of phenomenal dystopian books written that everyone should read. While banned in some jurisdictions, the idea of book burning and reading being illegal is still a serious issue. We ban books in our library systems, and in our schools. While we do not burn books on a regular basis, the vision timeliness of this book still has not faded since it first came out in print.

The book centers on a "fireman" Guy Montage and how he has to adjust his beliefs in line with the people around him that he meets, especially the Professor and the teen-age girl that provide an interesting counterpoint to the vacant wife that he lives with. Books are dangerous, and in the society here, even more so as books are burned, and the newspaper is reduced to a comic strip without words. As he looks around the environment that he lives in and compares his needs to the way that the world is going, supervisors, wife, and friends all notice that he is pulling back from long held beliefs. This is the problem, and the reason that the book works so well. While the society is not constantly monitored like in other books, friends and family eventually have a major impact on where Guy goes, and what Guy does throughout the course of this book. It is almost like he has no control or purpose outside of what others think, say, watch, or do.

This is probably the best Bradbury book written, and should be on everyone's bookshelf. Five of Five stars, the more copies in the house the better.

I never received the product in the mail. Needed it for summer reading for school and had to go to the bookstore to buy it.

This a classic must-read. Deep, interesting and a parable. Dont't miss reading it.

Fahrenheit 451 was the first novel to describe what would happen if people couldn't think. It is an interesting story that you don't find much. The world it draws up has no basis. This is because people can't think. In Fahrenheit 451, people are not allowed to have books because the government is afraid of an educated society. This book is very distressing because censorship could happen today. If there was censorship, the world would become dull and disturbing, as nothing would happen. There would be no great events, and this would cause no one to realize anything. This is the reason that it is still popular today. It is because of how controversial it is, in the fact of the world it portrays.