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Summary: Fahrenheit %0ZERO0%
Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
I didnt really like this book, it was all just people rambling on and on about how there life sucks, the whole worlds sucks, and burn books. I dont know how you could enjoy this book. People just talk to talk in this book. Its about a guy named montage that is a firefighter. He burns things instaed of putting fires out. He meets a wierdo girl who talks nonsense, this guy starts to think what hes doing starts reading books and gets caught. He then has to burn his books. He doesnt want to go to jail so he Runs away.
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Summary: A Frightening View of Our Future
Review: Reading FAHRENHEIT 451 is like going to another universe. Once you read such an awkward book by the master author of science fiction, Ray Bradbury, youre' bound to be memerized by the proceedings. This slightly short book sometimes made me ill at ease, or uncomfortable, because the book is self-conscious in a way. Bradbury's book is almost a conspiracy theory in many accounts, because it deals with the banning of books in an almost non-existent world. The basic premise is that reading a book in this "world" is against the law, where the penalties are hugely severe. The heroes, or anti-heroes in my book, are the fireman. Instead of their priorties of saving human lives, the fireman are hired basically to burn books. When a unhappily married fireman named Guy Montag questions the burning of books, his view becomes to deepen more and more. He soons to appearicate books, yet his wife and collegues soon mark him as a lawbreaker. Montag soon becomes a fugitive, and details his found use of books toward other intelligent minds who also are fond of books as well. I love Bradbury's interesting vision of the world his book. His beliefs in the future world are almost uncanny to today. But his future world is frightening and paranoid as well. I read the book twice, and I have become found of the characters and terrific and knowlegeable storyline. Yet, I feel FAHRENHEIT 451 should be taken not so lightly. The theme of this book feels so close to home, I feel like Bradbury's "world" might become our society in the years to come.
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Summary: Don't burn this book!
Review: I've read this book a couple of times and the truths of this book never cease to amaze me. Very similar to Orwell's 1984, this is the visionary look of what happens when government has too much power to control our lives and censure our media. In this story, books are the source of evil because they encourage free thinking and contain ideas that discourage the ideals of this government's philosophies. To control what people think, books are banned and burned by firemen. Firemen, as far as people believe (because books don't exist that disprove this), have always been around, burning books to protect the public from the evils they portray. This is the story of Guy Montag, who is a fireman. Guy Montag lives the life of any dedicated fireman. He does his job, pretends to be happy, and spends much of his income on TV walls so his wife can have more people in her "family" in which to converse with (and be controlled by). His life changes when he meets his seventeen year-old, free-thinking neighbor, Clarisse. Guy's eyes are open to a new world as he finds a new love for thinking for himself and discovering the wonders of books. This book has really appealed to me of late because of my own new-found love in books. If you don't appreciate having libraries in every town and an endless supply of books in which to enrich your imagination then you need to read this book so you can imagine what life would be like if books were banned along with your ability to think for yourself. Consider this a MUST READ.
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Summary: Searingly intense, timeless, perceptive and optimistic!
Review: I'm not a fan of science fiction, and so when my book group chose this book as its monthly selection to read, I was dubious. But then I started reading this small, seemingly simple little book and I was hooked - completely. Yes, it's science fiction. Yes, it requires the reader to accept the reality of a world that is a figment of the author's imagination. Yes, it deals with censorship and book burning and the dangers of mindless feel-good entertainment. And yes, it has a great plot and tells the fast paced story in a mere 165 pages. But in this case, the total effect is much much more than the sum of its parts. There's the quality of the writing first of all. The words run across the page with searing intensity, pulling the reader into a world that feels real and creepy. It pulsates with its theme, which is of fire and firemen and the cruel act of destroying books. It's intelligent and literate and uses some direct quotes from revered thinkers. And then there are some parts that were so humorous that I laughed out loud. Every line resonates with tension. It is a wonderful tale. And, to top it all off, it is optimistic. One of the joys of reading this book is that we have the hindsight of understanding it was written in 1950. The author has that that hindsight as well, and there are an additional 23 pages in the paperback edition, written by the author more than 50 years later. These few pages add dimension to an already complete book and should not be missed. I have no doubt that Fahrenheit 451 is now seared in my mind as being one of the finest books I've every read. It gets my highest recommendation. Don't miss it!
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Summary: Political Correctness is good--to a point
Review: I just read this book a couple days ago (it's a quick read--just a few hours) and felt it portrayed a lot of what I had been thinking for a long time. My mother always shuns shows like "Family Guy" and "South Park" because she feels they are too politically incorrect, but she misses the point of them entirely. Political correctness is good, but to a point. In the aforementioned shows, it's used to make points about society and often the ridiculasness of people who aren't tolerant. In Farenheit 451, people have rejected this in favor of making eveyone happy. The point is, in a world where free though isn't allowed, no once CAN be happy. Montag's wife is a victim of the new society, a woman who refuses to think about anyone or anything that upsets her and is completely enveloped by her tv shows, or her "family", where everything is perfect and everyone is laughing. In fact, a common theme throughout the book is people saying they are happy only to let us discover later that they really aren't. At least they aren't subconsiously. This is evident in the beginning when Montag's wife tries to kill herself. The social commentary, even at fifty years old, is still very striking. The burning of books is only a part of this novel.
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Summary: Great !!!
Review: Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction novel written by Ray Bradbury. The title represents the temperature at which paper burns. The author describes a future society where censorship becomes so severe, that the job of the town's firemen is not to put out fires, but rather to start them by burning books. The government tries to prevent its citizens from learning their own or independent ideas. The main character is Guy Montag. He is one of the firemen. His job is to burn the books. At first he does his job, but later he meets Clarissa, a ghostly image that could represent his conscience, and begins to question his duties. He has an internal conflict because on one hand he wants to do his job, but on the other he doesn't like burning the books any longer. Mr. Montag begins to accept books as a good thing. He starts to store them in his house, but his wife turns him in to the law and they confiscate his library. He escapes and joins an outlaw society that keep the contents of books memorized so that they could be written at a later time when such action is permitted by law. Mr. Bradbury's goal is clearly to show us the extreme to which censors could control a society simply by controlling what we read. This is a great book -- read it! Also I would like to recommend another novel: WILL@epicqwest.com by Tom Grimes
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Summary: A Warning for Society...
Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a beautifully written book with a haunting image of humanities future. It portrays a world where censorship reigns and individuality subcomes to the "common good". In this book political correctness is at an all time high and anything that would make a human think is destroyed for the common good of the society. Including books. Fire fighters no longer put fires out in this book but they start fires to destroy books and all other things that may prompt society to have an origional thought or two. They even set fire to all "law breakers" who refuse to give up their precious reading material.
This book; though it has a slow story line; is a masterpeice and warning for today's society. A lesson we should learn well as we can see the obvious comparisons between our society and the society portrayed by Ray Bradbury.
Highly recommended to all with a good attention span.
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Summary: The Threat of Free Thought
Review: A time honored classic, once a scary prophetic vision, and quite possibly, now a reality. Ray Bradbury's futuristic thriller, "Fahrenheit 451" reads as both analogy and warning, and a dire one at that. This book has been on my "let's read it in the near future" list for some time. But it wasn't until the city of Portland, Oregon selected this book for their "Everyone Reads" campaign that I found the incentive to read it. This story spins a tale in the near future where reading is considered outlaw, that books are contraband, and any attempt of thinking outside the box is handled by extinguishing the threat. Guy Montag is a fireman, but not in the common sense; he starts fires instead of putting them out. He's "married" to Mildred, in a passionless marriage of convenience; Mildred who prefers to spend time in front of the television and listening to the radio in her life of hopelessness. Early on, he meets the fair Clarisse who boldly suggests to him that life is much more than starting fires. It is the tipping point of his decline, as his life begins to rush closer and closer to the incinerator itself. What impressed me about this book is that it was written in the early 1950's, and yet it reads as well as a modern novel. Bradbury would refute any attempts of suggesting he was forecasting the future, but so much of what he saw the future becoming has transpired. How many hours do our children spend in front of the television? And in these times, when our libraries are being threatened to track patron's records or monitor internet use, how far away are we from Bradbury's 451? It's both chilling and reflecting. As a dour warning for what might happen, we can take heed to this warning to ensure that we celebrate divergent thought and reading as a gift for our citizens and not something to fear. Whereas people would refute the claim that we would never burn books in America, why is it that this book so often has actually been banned from some libraries and schools across this country? We need to listen, and learn, lest we suffer the fate of Montag and start to live in a country and world so brilliantly premonitioned in "Fahrenheit 451".
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Summary: Everyone should read once
Review: A well written tale of our dark future. The story hopes to show that humans are moving to an era of faster, louder, stronger lives and giving up thinking. Force feeding the people information and opinions and expecting no opposition is the goal of the government and the people feel good about their lives. But, in this world there is no happiness. In fact, the only emotions left are negative or false. I think everyone should read this book once and see if it opens your eyes. The story is a little futuristic and does get a little difficult at times but is still worth the effort. And if 200 pages is too much for you, then the future is coming sooner then we think - rent the movie.
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Summary: Not a story about books
Review: According to the beliefs of some citizens who have posted their comments on this site, Fahrenheit 451 is about books. It seems like it is, but in its true form, the story about something deeper than books. The story is brilliant because it perfectly describes how willing people are to give up knowledge for something that is faster, easier. It also brings up the topic of control through the media. The government and media focus on happy, cheerful things (such as chasing Montag), rather than the war about to begin. This makes an excellent point about how we as a species are too willing to turn a blind eye to our problems, and allow someone else to fix them. This book does a fine job at shining new light on the saying "Ignorance is bliss." This is a masterpiece of our time, and I suggest getting it from your public library, if you decide not to buy it. Either way, read it. Its got some insight that is very thought provoking~
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