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Loading... Fahrenheit 451by Ray Bradbury
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  59Square | Nov 9, 2009 |  In Ray Bradbury's brilliant futuristic novel, Fahrenheit 451, firemen search for and burn books. Guy Montag's (the main character) society considers book-owning and book-reading to be high crime. In the futuristic culture Guy lives in, superfluous information is almost considered a good thing, whereas true knowledge is considered one of the utmost evils. All culture in this society comes not from newspapers and books, but from "the parlor" - a full wall of nothing but a television built into the living room. The society Guy lives in is inherently evil, and once Guy realizes this, he sets out to change it. Montag begins the novel as a fireman who loves every aspect of his job. Watching books burn brings him nothing but sheer pleasure, until the day he meets Clarisse. Clarisse is a young girl whose uncle taught her much about books, ideas, and personal thoughts. Guys' conversations with Clarisse change him for the better, and he begins to steal books and hide them in his home (without the consent of his wife). When Guys' wife Mildred finds out about what he is doing, she becomes terribly frightened. Eventually she decides to turn Guy in and leave him. Guy is forced by his superior, Captain Beatty, to burn his entire book collection along with his home. In a last second turn of events, Guy uses his flamethrower to incinerate Captain Beatty and flees for his life to avoid arrest. Many twists and turns ensue, and in the end, Guy escapes and joins an outlaw band of intellects who memorize parts of some of the most important books in history to preserve them during the horrible time period they are living in. In my opinion, Fahrenheit 451 is a captivating and brilliant, if not disturbing, novel. It is very meaningful today in the times we live in. Some of the characters struck me deeply, and left me wanting more. The story of Guy Montag, fireman turned preserver of freedom (so to speak), is surely one that I will never forget. 2  rbiedry | Nov 6, 2009 | It was a bit overrated. I expected more out of the novel. Not bad though. (  )1 Anagarika | Nov 3, 2009 | Moronic back-patting to geeks around there. Books will never disappear (that's martyr complex for you), good books will disappear and be replaced by trash genre lit. (  ) Kuiperdolin | Nov 1, 2009 | Yes, scary. Yes, classic. Yes, kinda boring. Despite being very short, Bradbury writes very...densely, and I found the book hard to focus on - my mind would wander. I do think it's an incredibly important book, and I am glad I reread it (first time since high school, of course). My teen book group, though? Only 2 of 11 finished it - the others didn't finish it, mostly because they felt they "didn't get it." We did have a nice discussion about censorship, though! ( )2 kayceel | Oct 30, 2009 | 
 This intriguing idea might well serve as a foundation on which to build a worst of all possible worlds. And to a certain extent it does not seem implausible. Unfortunately, Bradbury goes little further than his basic hypothesis. The rest of the equation is jerry-built.  Ray Bradbury has more than ideas, and that is what sets him apart from most writers who try to be original. He is fantastic, and human. He never looks at anything with a jaded eye; he is a storyteller every minute of the time, and he is definitely his own kind of storyteller.
Amazon.com (ISBN 0345342968, Mass Market Paperback)In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Fire Captain Beatty explains it this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy."Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family," imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature. Bradbury--the author of more than 500 short stories, novels, plays, and poems, including The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man--is the winner of many awards, including the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America. Readers ages 13 to 93 will be swept up in the harrowing suspense of Fahrenheit 451, and no doubt will join the hordes of Bradbury fans worldwide. --Neil Roseman (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:53 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Despite being very short, Bradbury writes very...densely, and I found the book hard to focus on - my mind would wander. I do think it's an incredibly important book, and I am glad I reread it (first time since high school, of course).
My teen book group, though? Only 2 of 11 finished it - the others didn't finish it, mostly because they felt they "didn't get it."
We did have a nice discussion about censorship, though! (