Rating: 
Summary: Prophetic
Review: Amazingly, I just read this book for the first time, although I've heard about it for years. Wow! As I was reading the book, I kept glancing back to the copyright page to verify that Ray Bradbury did indeed write this book in 1953, almost 50 years ago. So much of what he wrote is actually happening to us today. We want things faster and faster, and fewer and fewer people are reading. When I talk to my students about reading, most say they don't have time or that they'd rather see the movie. Children tend to turn to video games for entertainment, not books. Bradbury even predicted the increase in violence in our schools.As I was reading this book, I discussed it with my ten-year-old. He was fascinated with the story of Guy Montag, the renegade fireman of the future. So fascinated that he had the book approved for his literature circle at school. This book should be required reading for everyone -- Ray Bradbury has much to teach us about where our society is heading, if we're not careful.
Rating: 
Summary: Fiction becoming reality.
Review: It's hard to believe this little book by the famed Ray Bradbury has been around for about fifty years. I remember kids talking about this book just a few years ago when I was in high school and remember thinking it was some great new work of sci-fi. With all the changes in our society and culture the past few years (from the Internet to digital television), FAHRENHEIT 451 is more significant today than it was forty years ago. The plot of the story is simple. Guy Montag is a fireman. However, in the future, instead of putting out fires, fireman start them. Guy burns books and he enjoys doing it. Books are illegal to own and most people spend their free time (and they have lots of it) driving their cars (at speeds of over 120 mph) or listening to the wall-sized televisions that have become their family. One day Guy meets a strange girl who sets a fancy to his heart. His meeting with her allows him to open up and begin to see the truth. The story is simple, but it is what the story says about our society that is so significant. We are told by the story's antagonist that things changed because the country became divided by factions of every sort and people no longer cared about the knowledge books contained. Reading forces people to think and thinking is bad because it forces you to consider others and when you only care about yourself, how can you think about someone else? In our modern American society where many people label themselves with as many hypens as possible, where lives are literally being played out on television, and where violence is becoming more and more the norm; the issues raised in FAHRENHEIT 451 need to be discussed more than ever.
Rating:
Summary: Much Deeper Than You Would Think
Review: This book is much deeper than you owuld think at first glance. It may be about Guy Montag who burns book in the future. but in reality it is about 3 major things. The Dumbing Down of Society, Censorship, and the effects of Mass Media on the world. This book is one of those that you can't put down, i suggest you order it or go out and check it out from the library, it's a keeper.
Rating: 
Summary: The state of censorship
Review: I picked up this book because I had absoutely loved Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984. I thought I would like this book, considering its subject matter. I was completely wrong. Those that compared this to the other two masterpieces, failed to note one thing: Whereas the other two are written in haunting, intense, breathlessly engaging style, this book is in comparison rather choppy in its language. If the language style was not so dry, maybe I would have enjoyed slightly more. Furthermore, the book lacks any suspense whatsoever. Instead of staying up all night by my bed to finish the book, I had to constantly skip pages because of its rather boring and dry writing. I also found the characters particularly unsympathetic and unable to identify with. Instead of drawing me in, I had to force myself to finish the book (after repeatedly skimming through some unbearably slow sections). For such a small book, it's not easy to turn off a reader so many times. In addition, the book feels distant and unrealistic. It misses the realism to resonate with today's society, but it also lacks the bleak prophecy of a warning. Instead, near the end of the book, the author gave a not very subtlely disguised lecture on censorship, which is fine, except for the face that it feels like the author had left the world of storytelling and abruptly intrude into his own stories. He could not get the point across by the story itself; he had to announce it out. I also found the ending a bit ridiculous and incredulous. If words were so easily preserved in memories, we would not need writing. If the brain were so indiscriminating in its selectivity, we would not have conflicting memories. And although this book was supposedly an anti-censorship novel, I did not walk away from this book feeling the horrow of censorship. Instead, I wished I had not wasted my time on reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Fahrenheit 451
Review: Imagine a place where fire alarms alert firemen of where books are being held, and the firemen start fires that destroy those books along with the house and sometimes the people living inside of it. It is a time of censorship against all books. Guy Montag is one of the firemen, but a few people have helped him realize that what he is doing is wrong. But with this knowledge comes the betrayal of his wife and co-workers. Guy must escape the world in which reading is illegal. This book offers a fascinating glimpse at what the world, or at least the country, may become if books continue to be censored. Bradbury keeps the reader interested by citing books that many of us have read, including the Bible. And his topic of censorship still rings true, possibly more so than when it was written, due to the growing list of books censored from libraries and school curriculums. I recommend this book to anyone who recognizes the power of books and what society would be without them, but also to those who don't realize the power. Overall a wonderful book, written in a way that spans lifetimes.
Rating:
Summary: Censorship 451
Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a very interesting book. This book touches on the subject of censorship, and the damages that censorship can have in our society. While some forms of censorship are good such as keeping kids out of movies that they shouldn't be seeing, there is another side to it. Censorship, as shown by Bradbury can be a very damaging thing. In this book, fireman were required to start fires, not put them out. They started Fires by finding people who owned books, and then burning their houses down with the books inside of them. In our society today this would seem a proposterous idea, but somewhere down the line, who knows, anything is possible. The story line in this book is very interesting as well. It is fast reading, easy to understand, and has a great story with believable characters in it as well. I fully enjoyed this book, I actually read it from cover to cover without putting it down because I continually wanted to know what was going to happen to the main character. My advise to those who are interested in this book is to definitely buy it, you will not regret it.
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Summary: Re: Is 451 degrees really the temp books burn at?
Review: If it is, then I will imediatly torch the books to bits and pieces. The book proves one point to me: burning books and their society is much better than ours where Farenheit 451 can be published
Rating: 
Summary: An O.K. read
Review: Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 wan an enjoyable read. It started out a little slow, but came to a tension filled climax. The tension of the ending was well worth the slow reading in the beginning. In the beginning we get to find out the life of the main character (Montag). We are given an understanding of what his every day goings on in the future are. We are told what his job entails and how important it is for the society that he lives in. The middle and end of this book is when the story gets good. We learn how unneccessary books are and why they are seen as evil. We see Montag go from anti-books to pro-books with the help of a freind (Faber). We watch as Montag comes up with a plan to try to make books a part of society again. Fahrenheit 451 is the degree at which paper burns. This is a good title because the whole story is about how books are as illegal or even more illegal as present day drugs. Books are to be incenerated. They are worthless in the future. All in all Fahrenheit 451 is a good science fiction book. Once the reader gets past the slow beginning, they are in for an enjoyable treat. The reader will be swept away into a future where reading is considered useless because nothing will be gained except confusion. This is not true about this book.
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Summary: In this reality the video games play YOU!!!
Review: Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" describes a society where knowledge is controlled by book-burning 'firemen'. This government-implemented censorship starts as 'political correctness' -- upset people deface controversial books. Then government decides to pacify society by simplifying education and eliminating books. Noncontroversial interactive televised plays replace books as entertainment, neighbors inform on neighbors possessing books, and firemen incinerate houses containing books. Guy Montag, a fireman, meets a young woman who chides him for living but not experiencing life. Guy examines his life. His relationship with his wife Mildred is remote and cold -- they have nothing in common. (Mildred spends *all* of her time in the 'living room', a room with an interactive television screen covering each of three walls. Mildred sleeps in a separate bed with 'seashell' radio earpieces in her ears.) During one firecall Guy observes a homeowner herself light the firemen's kerosene and then perish in the flames -- Guy cannot understand the woman's protest. And upon reflection Guy cannot understand why books must be burnt. His attitude alienates his fellow firemen, who threaten and then arrest him. Guy escapes and seeks refuge in the countryside. "Fahrenheit 451" somewhat resembles Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and George Orwell's "1984". "Brave New World" uses eugenic control and the drug 'soma' to pacify society. "1984" uses ever-present surveillance, propaganda and torture to pacify society. "Fahrenheit 451" simplifies education and bans books (i.e., eliminates controversial thinking and discussion), substitutes interactive television (e.g., video games and the Internet), and portrays neighbors as informants to be avoided -- everyone is isolated in their home. The "Fahrenheit 451" societal portrayal seems less sinister, but it is easier to implement and therefore more dangerous. There *are* many similarities between "Fahrenheit 451" society and today's United States urban society. And "Fahrenheit 451" is a beautifully-written book suitable to read aloud. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: How else would you like to WASTE MY TIME?
Review: To put it simply: this book sucked. Although this is a very juvenile way of putting it, it fits perfectly. This book was so boring, that all the description Bradbury puts in couldn't possibly describe how slowly it moves. If Bradbury wanted us to realize the importance of books, the LEAST he could do was make this book SEMI-interesting! Essentially: Don't waste your time.
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