Sunday, March 1, 2015

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

"Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.

The classic dystopian novel of a post-literate future, Fahrenheit 451 stands alongside Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World as a prophetic account of Western civilization’s enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity."


Okay, sorry, I know I've been MIA. Trying to do six million things at once will do that to you, I guess. But hopefully I'll be posting a bunch more soon. So, I've heard people say different things about this book--some like it, some don't. I found that I liked it. Some people have complained that it moves slow, but I didn't get that at all. It moves much quicker and easier than many classics I've read, and it stayed interesting for me. Granted, this comes with a bit of a flipside: the themes pretty much hit you over the head, so if you're the type who likes to painstakingly dig the meaning out of your books, this may not interest you as much. Bradbury didn't dance around things, which made for a nice, interesting, straightforward read. The universe was extremely well-crafted and conceived, and equal parts troubling and thought-provoking as it was meant to be. I loved the questions posed by it, and I'd definitely recommend it. There are copies as Kettleson, SHS, Blatchley, and Mt. Edgecumbe. Enjoy!