Fahrenheit 451 in Pick-a-Shelf

Feb 13, 2014 Rebekah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-classics, genre-fantasy, genre-literature, genre-novels, genre-science-fiction, genre-science-fiction-dystopia, genre-fiction, nbrc-bom-br, bookgirls

Interesting critique of anti-intellectualism, technology addiction, violence, hedonism, capitalism, and war, but felt a bit heavy handed and preachy at times! This is a classic dystopian novel, and the themes presented are still scarily relevant (if not even more so with reality television, smart phones, etc) today as when it was originally published! However, things move very quickly and I got the impression sometimes that Bradbury was being a little Old Man "Get off my lawn!" in his approach. ...more

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Aug 11, 2009 Slayermel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, made-into-film, own, fiction, mystery, science-fiction, book-club, dystopia, kobo

I found this book very hard to rate after I finished reading it, and had to walk away from it for a bit to ponder my feelings on it.

Some of the messages in the book were a bit frightening especially when you compare them to today, the constant bombardment of advertising, people wanting bigger and better televisions that take up more and more of the wall space. People in general are not as social as say our Grandparents Generation, when everyone knew their neighbours on a friendly basis, and wou I found this book very hard to rate after I finished reading it, and had to walk away from it for a bit to ponder my feelings on it.

Some of the messages in the book were a bit frightening especially when you compare them to today, the constant bombardment of advertising, people wanting bigger and better televisions that take up more and more of the wall space. People in general are not as social as say our Grandparents Generation, when everyone knew their neighbours on a friendly basis, and would keep a watchful eye and discipline the children of the neighbourhood. In some ways we really aren’t that far off from the story. The one I find particularly disturbing is the inability to think for oneself, in more and more workplaces now a days there are set ways of doing things and having to think outside of the box is becoming a rare talent that is not being used as much as it probably should be. Most people just want to do their job and go home, and are happy to have employment, with a steady pay cheque.

Fahrenheit 451 is about a Fireman named Guy Montag; his job like all Firemen is to burn books. The calls usually come in during the middle of the night and they race off to torch books and the house they have been found in. Guy had enjoyed his job for ten years and had never questioned what he does until one day on the way home he met an eccentric girl named Clarisse who asked him a bunch of simple questions that he had never thought of before. Her innocent questioning started Guy thinking, which lead him down a road he could never turn back from.

In the back of the book I have Ray Bradbury discusses some of the things we have done to books already, by editing them to shorten them for schools as well as taking out and censoring them for the students and by doing so changing the book to suit them. Which caused me to think in many ways we are already as bad as the Fireman in this novel, we are changing works of literature that are not ours to change, we are denying and controlling what people may or may not read, who gave us the right to do so. Ray Bradbury made a comment which has really stuck with me and I have been thinking about it a lot today “There is more than one way to burn a book”, and I have to say he is correct.

I think this is a worthwhile read for anyone, the message of the book more so then the story itself really resonates with me.
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Nov 16, 2009 Sunflower rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction-read-2009, library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 07, 2013 Lorna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, classics

This book has a prophetic edge to it today as much as when it was written in 1953. It was interesting to think about the latest Nielsen statistics in relationship to this book. The message is about much more than censorship. I am always amazed at Bradbury's writing style. ...more

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Oct 07, 2008 Lauren rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, before-you-graduate, 2008

This book was wonderful and terrifying. I love books, and I can't think of burning them (although there have been a few books so terribly written that I am tempted...).
What happens when the culture becomes that of simply living for shallow feelings of "happy"? Ray Bradbury explores this,
and his conclusion is scary. ...more

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