Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451
book data
62,694 ratings, 3.91 average rating, 3,187 reviews (more data...)
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published
April 1st 2003 (first published 1953) by Del Rey Ballantine

binding
Paperback, 194 pages

characters

setting
The United States

literary awards
Hugo Award for Best Novel (1954)

isbn
0345342968    (isbn13: 9780345342968)

description
The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning, along with the houses in which they were hidden.

Guy Montag was a fi...more




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She-Who-Reads
07/11/07
She-Who-Reads rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in August, 2005
Somehow, I have gotten through life as an English major, book geek, and a science-fiction nerd without ever having read this book. I vaguely remember picking it up in high-school and not getting very far with it. It was an interesting premise, but far too depressing for my tastes at the time.

Fast-forward 15 years later. I just bought a copy the other day to register at BookCrossing for their Banned Books Month release challenge. The ALA celebrates Banned Books Week in September, so o...more
Like this review?   yes   (27 people liked it)
  5 comments

Chris
07/24/08
Chris rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in July, 2008
It’s time to do it, isn’t it? You know it is. We’ve all done it before, no sense in resisting the temptation to do it yet again. The sun has set, the skies have turned a sensational shade of indigo, the interior lighting is seductively dimmed. The house is otherwise empty, and not expecting additional occupancy any time soon. The blinds are down, curtains drawn tightly. The stereo is playing softly; isn’t that your favorite slow-jam? Of course it is.

Thwart all possi...more
Like this review?   yes   (11 people liked it)
  3 comments

Brian Hodges
bookshelves: bloody-brilliant, classics
Read in July, 2008
Believe me, I'm not the kind of guy who gushes over classics simply by virtue of the fact that they are classics, but this one was worth all the legend that it carries with it. I'm glad I never had to read this book in highschool. First of all, we would have ruined this truly awesome story by overanalyzing every mundane literary aspect, detail and device. Second, the story is SO much more profound in the year 2008 at the age of 30 than it could have been at 17 in 1995.

I always t...more
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Alison
06/16/07
Alison rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: classics, rgbookclub
Read in April, 2008
recommends it for: book-lovers, everyone!
Guy Montag, the book-burning fireman from Farenheit 451 is a dystopian Jerry Maguire of sorts. After years of burning books and living with an overly-medicated wife in a society that focuses on distraction, entertainment, and "happiness", he doesn't write a mission statement...he decides to start reading banned books on his search for something *real*.

Bradbury claims that it's not about censorship here. Rather, it's about a society that asks "how" over "why...more
Like this review?   yes   (7 people liked it)
  4 comments

Michael
02/29/08
Michael rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Laura
01/19/08
Laura rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0307347974)

Read in January, 2008
recommends it for: anyone who enjoys thinking
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?   yes   (5 people liked it)
  1 comment

Tyler
12/28/07
Tyler rated it: 1 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2007
Few appreciate irony as much as I do, so understand that I understand this review. The message of this book is decent: knowledge should not be censored. However, the rest of the book is utter shit. I found myself actually screaming at several points as Bradbury spent minutes and dozens of metaphors and allusions referring to one insignificant detail of the plot. It is too damn flowery to be understandable by anyone! In other words, an English teacher's dream. In addition, the story was about the...more
Like this review?   yes   (9 people liked it)
  3 comments

Lindsay Jones
bookshelves: currently-reading
Read in October, 2007
recommends it for: fellow students
Lindsay Jones

Ms.Kuhn

October 7,2007

Hour 6

Interview with Guy Montag

1. How do you feel about your job as a fireman?

Im very confused about the obligations of a fireman. It feels as though helping people is not my job anymore. The only thing this city seems to worry about is the situation dealing with books and literature. Our job know is to burn any type of writing found,and I do not believe in what we are...more
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Jason Pettus
07/09/07
Jason Pettus rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Ray Bradbury has never sat comfortably in the world of literature, nor with me; considered a "genre writer" by some and meant as an insult, a "serious writer" by others and meant as a compliment, it seems that I am always going back and forth about his merits in my head too, especially the farther away we get from many of the books' original publication dates. That said, how can you not love Fahrenheit 451, a virtual blueprint for the Cautionary Science Fiction Tale with Mode...more
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Tara
03/28/07
Tara rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 9506440298)

bookshelves: favorite-reads
one of my top 5 favorites of all time.

Favorite Quotes

Have you ever watched the jet cars race on the boulevard?...I sometimes think drivers don’t know what grass is, or flowers, because they never see them slowly...If you showed a driver a green blur, Oh yes! He'd say, that’s grass! A pink blur! That’s a rose garden! White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows.

There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burni...more
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Sithara
In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury has created a world that chillingly seems to reflect our present and near future. In this upside down dystopia, firemen burn books, women congregate with their fake wall (television) families, youth engage in high speed car chases, killing themselves and others, and products are promoted on 200 ft billboards, and hawked by Jesus Christ. In this world where supposedly everyone has everything one wants, no one is truly happy, no one loves anyone, and unhappy people ...more
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Guillermo
Read in February, 2009
Dejé de leer porque leer me alejó de las personas que amo. Me deshice de todos mis libros porque ellos me robaron mucho tiempo al lado de las personas más valiosas. Dejé de leer, porque a medida que veía escenarios, personas, comportamientos, atmósferas, relaciones, etcétera; impresas en las páginas de los libros, comencé a tomarlas como alternativas de vida, como comportamientos que debieran ser socialmente aceptados o asimilados a la vida cotidiana, es decir: perdí la noción de dife...more
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Jenny
07/07/08
Jenny rated it: 4 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0307347974)

bookshelves: fantasy
Ray Bradbury is amazing..such vision and imagination! This story could have easily have taken place in 2008 yet it was written in the 1950's. Desensitization to human realities (pleasure and thrill of any kind King), TV obsession, and such a decline in an interest to read, the masses don’t hardly blink an eye when books are not only banned, but burned (we aren’t there yet..but you can see some similarities). I love the chase with the mechanical hound that mimics a true “Bad Boy” reality...more
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  1 comment

Jim
01/03/08
Jim rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0307347974)

bookshelves: science-fiction
Read in January, 2001
I don't usually review classics for obvious reasons, but I flipped through this again the other day & it's still one of the most chilling books I've ever read.

Conform & remember meaningless trivia to be happy. Don't bother with the thorny problems or think for yourself! Immerse yourself in the fantasy world of TV that covers entire walls, so you can be a part of the virtual, mindless world. The shows remind me strongly of the current 'reality TV' craze.

Originally pub...more
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Keely
10/25/07
Keely rated it: 3 of 5 stars (review of other edition)

bookshelves: novel, politics, reviewed, sci-fi
Not a book about book censorship, but a book about how TV will rot your brain. This book falls somewhat short of its satirical mark based on this cranky lawn-loving neighbor's message. Then again, it was written in the course of a few days in one long, uninterrupted slurry (mercifully edited by his publishers, but now available utterly restored). Contains archetypes, misconceptions, and an author surrogate; but still works as an inspiring view of authority and power, and of the way people are al...more
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  7 comments

Lane Wilkinson
bookshelves: fiction
Read in July, 2007
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 t...more
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Dottie
Read in May, 2008
Probably my earliest encounter with Bradbury and my only one for many years until I finally got to Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes -- bless Bradbury for such fine reading experiences!


May 2008 re-read:

And now I understand why this one was the only one for so long. It is absolutely stunning. That power stayed with me a long time. It didn't invite further exploration of the author. It almost doesn't invite me to continue my reading addiction. It...more
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  2 comments

Monk
08/17/07
Monk rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 8445074873)

Read in October, 1997
recommends it for: Anyone Eighteen and Older
This book is a dark horse candidate for me. I was first presented this book when I was fourteen. I hated it. It was old sci-fi, which to a fourteen year-old is unforgivable. I actually failed a marking period of High School for not reading this and a Tale of Two Cities (which I still hate).

However, once it was reintroduced to me later in my college years, it turned out to be a fantastic book about free-thinking, education, and how important it is to make sure that we never get too co...more
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Kelly
07/22/07
Kelly rated it: 3 of 5 stars (review of isbn 2207248925)

bookshelves: dystopian
Read in August, 2007
Personally I have beef with Bradbury as a human being. In fact, I think he's a raging ass. But personal feelings aside, Fahrenheit 451 is a surprisingly relevant book. Although Bradbury's ascertation that the novel is not really about censorship is absurd particularly after one reads his "Coda" at the end of my 1991 Ballantine Books edition of the novel where he rails against those trying to "gut" his writing by making it more digestible for the masses. In it he writes:...more
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Jessica Clark
06/13/07
Jessica Clark rated it: 4 of 5 stars

The following three quotes represent my interpretation of the meaning or message of Fahrenheit 451, or at least the part I found the most moving and convincing:

"What do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn't that right? Haven't you heard it all your life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren't they? Don't we keep them moving, don't we give them fun? That's all we live for, isn't it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our c...more
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