In a dystopic future, books are outlawed and burned. The title is a reference to the temperature at which paper burns. Guy Montag is a fireman who gradually notices how wrong things are.

He befriends a former professor, stands up to his fire chief, and fights a truly frightening robotic dog as he tries to get out from beneath the suffocating, normalizing, noisy, inane blanket that society has become.

I found the book hard to put down as Montag began to struggle, then burst from the constraints of a bookless, book-burning society. I found many of Bradbury’s elements chillingly prescient–television panels that took up whole walls, shows that were supposedly real that viewers became personally involved in, and entertainment that’s dumbed down so it offends no one, and challenges no one.

This is a timeless book about censorship, individualism, society, the love of books and the challenge of intellectual pursuits. I wished for more, and more rounded female characters, a lack Bradbury defends (somewhat grumpily) in the Coda of my edition. ( )

This is an incredible social commentary that absolutely everyone should read. Bradbury's translation of real-world events and their implications from present to page is uncanny and haunting. Full of timeless truths that seem even more applicable now than they were then, Fahrenheit 451 is a compelling work and a must-read. ( )

I first read this book (as most of us did) in high school. At the time, we were taught that it was a remarkable achievement and a literary masterpiece. Upon returning to Bradbury's novel, I must say that I am somewhat underwhelmed. The book isn't bad by any means, but it does not live up to the literary greatness that I remember from 12 years ago. Allow me to explain...I have this theory that Fahrenheit 451 is one of the last books most people ever read. Along with 1984, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, and a couple of works by Vonnegut, Fahrenheit is a stock novel for high-school English classes (I'm sure there are others, but I think everyone read at least one of the aforementioned). The book is political without being reactionary, written in a simple and direct prose, and it lacks the complex plot-points that characterize other notable works. In point of fact, Fahrenheit 451 is a great, great book for introducing adolescent readers to literature. But...People graduate from high-school and (for the majority) go on to study science or business or to enter the work-force, never again to have anything but the most cursory of experiences with the great novels. In short, Fahrenheit 451 is one of the last great books that (most) people ever read. And if you doubt me, just try to find any book you read in high-school at the airport bookstore. So, that being said, and the shrill accusations of literary elitism already ringing in my ears, I love Fahrenheit 451. For each and every one of Bradbury's overwrought and bloated metaphors, I love this book--if only because it reminds me that at one point in almost everyone's life, they get to read at least a few good books. ( )

I just read this again recently with my daughter and was struck with just how timely it was. Of all the apocalyptic novels warning us of our possible futures Bradbury could not have been more right on. I am sorry Orwell ... it isn't Big Brother that will be the end of us it is out petty entertainments and refusal to drink deep of the intellectual life. Like Huxley, Bradbury is absolutely correct,it is the things we love that will be our end; not the monsters without, but those within. ( )

A difficult book to like mostly to do with Bradbury’s writing style, but one I read for the CBO’s bookclub. The themes explored were interesting but I wish it had been written in an easier style. Saying that, considering the book was written in the 50’s, it is eerily prescient. An unforgiving view of society as it now stands, suggesting that the vast majority of people are content to no longer question life but to accept what is force fed to them. The burning of books, becomes symbolic in removing the very thing we use to question society and our existence. ( )