Rating: 
Summary: A look into the future
Review: In the year 1953 Ray Bradbury wrote a book about something that, I think, could very well happen in the year 2000 and the years thereafter. The whole book, "Fahrenheit 451", is about the banning of books. This issue has gotten worse over the years and if it continues maybe firemen will indeed be paid to burn our books.In "Fahrenheit 451" Guy Montag, the main character, is a fireman who realizes people should have the right to read books. He realizes that books mean a lot to the people who own them and after years of never thinking twice about burning a house down he watches a woman burn herself with her house because she wanted to die right along with her books. Guy comes up with a plan to get revenge on other firemen in an effort to stop book banning. At some points of the book Ray Bradbury's writing was a bit confusing. He brought up different characters and stories out of the blue and I really had to think to figure out how those events pertained to the main story. "Fahrenheit 451" was the second science fiction book I've read by Ray Bradbury. I also read "October County", a book of short stories. I do have to say that that book was also confusing, but was good because of the author's great description of places and people. "Fahrenheit 451" is good if you like to think while you read. I think it has a good message about the banning of books and I'm glad I spent my time reading it.
Rating:
Summary: A Possible Solution
Review: Fahrenheit 451, was a very thought provoking piece. Through out the book, I found my self comparing incidents to those of the WWII book burnings. The WWII book burnings were performed to "un-educate" the people. Unlike the cause for this in Fahrenheit 451, the reason for them burning the books was to protect them, so they thought. The "racial writings" that could be found in the literature were outlawed. Fireman, were sent to destroy books that were found, buy burning them. Guy Montag, the central character in this story, is a fireman. After being challenged by a younger girl, with her simple question "are you happy?" Guys life soon after changes with his new realization of the emptiness and sadness all around him. A series of events, his wife dying, finally leads him to not show up at work. This leads to his boss coming to his house and giving him a well-rehearsed speech, explaining how this happens to everyone. This even does not seem all to unrealistic, with the new choice of T.V. over a book; reading has become more of a chore than an enjoyment. With the touchy feelings of society, the "un-colorblind" culture has become a serious problem. With all these problems presented burning of books does not seem all that unrealistic. This book will capture the eye of readers to come for years.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated
Review: 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 are 2 books I've been wanting to read for a long time. The ideas behind them certainly interest me, and I've heard them hailed many times as masterpieces. I'm currently reading 1984 right now, and I can tell you right from the beginning that it's a better choice. That isn't to say, of course, that Fahrenheit 451 is a bad book. Far from it, the characters are, for the most part, well developed, and the idea behind the book is an interesting one. Ray Bradbury's idea of a censored future where war is a constant, yet supressed, issue is interesting, yet borrows heavily from 1984. My two major problems with the book, though, are the character interactions and the ending. Perhaps it's just Ray Bradbury's way of character development, but by the way the characters talk you would think they were all deeply mentally disturbed. They talk for pages and pages, constantly changing the subjects on a whim. It gives you the idea of a future where people never dwell too long on anything, but it also makes the book uninteresting. Oftentimes you can't tell the distinction between a character's ramblings in their own mind and a character's actions. I had to double-take a couple times just to make sure something really happened and the character wasn't just thinking about it. My second problem is the ending. It almost seems like Bradbury ran out of steam and couldn't think of anything else to put in the book, so he decided to nuke the city. Yes, it was a suprising ending and an interesting way to conclude the book, but it seemed like a rushed afterthought. Bradbury could have done so much with the characters after Montag left the city, but he decided to end it right there. If you're interested in this kind of book, I'd suggest it. It kept me captivated at times, even if in the end it was less than what it was made out to me. If you have to choose between 1984 and 451, go for 1984. If you can pick up both, do so.
Rating: 
Summary: Fiction? Really?
Review: "Fahrenheit 451" is a simply great book. Yes, it's quite distressing and unpleasant to read - because what Bradbury describes is much closer to truth than we'd like it to be. And that is precisely what makes the reality of the book so alike our own - it's more pleasant not to think about such things, and therefore one can merely say the book doesn't suit one's taste and go 'get entertained' in front of the TV. The disturbing thing about the book is that, unlike many other books that deal with the distant future, "Fahrenheit 451" (written in 1953) hasn't been proved wrong simply by time itself. Not at all. Actually, what is shocking to realize is that we've come quite close to the society Bradbury writes about. Perhaps books haven't been banned yet, but it is indeed the entertainment industry that controls people's minds, the political correctness has reached ridiculous levels, there are ads everywhere and now we even have Segways so that we don't have to walk anywhere... And, of course, we can get a thousand page long classics shortened to a hundred pages - or, better yet, simply watch the movie. The book also has other qualities besides making one think (which is, judging by some other reviews, one of its biggest downsides). One cannot but admire the brilliant way Bradbury uses absurd and creates a completely surreal feeling by using the methods of expressionism to describe the feelings and thoughts of the main character. Bradbury sure had things to write about - and that can be proved by even something as simple as the fact I've spent the last half an hour writing a review on the Internet rather than reading a good book or looking at the world...
Rating:
Summary: Taking a Step into the Future
Review: Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is one of the most important and influential books of all time. In 1950, when it was written he didn't know he was going to predict today's society. Guy Montag, the protagonist, loved his work. There seemed to be nothing that he liked better than to spray kerosene on a pile of books and watch the pages curl and turn into ash. Until, one day he meets Clarisse, a 17-year-old girl who has been educated about the world. At one point in one of their conversation she asks if he is happy. Montag realizes that people should have the right to read books. He finds that books mean a lot to people when a woman chooses to burn herself with her books. Guy comes up with a plan to get revenge on other firemen in an effort to stop book banning.
Montag's boss, Beatty tries to reason with Montag about the banishment of books saying "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 (61)." The people of Montag's society live under such a principle, even though at some times they may not know it.
The turning point in the novel is when his wife, Mildred discovers what he is doing. She becomes scared. Eventually, she turns him in, and he is forced to burn his collection of books. This is the climax of the book because the reader is unsure what lies ahead. The adrenaline of the reader is at its highest, and ones mind is trying to think of all the possible outcomes.
The censorship that is in Bradbury's novel comes from an inferior dictatorship. It is a culture that does not want its citizens to be lured into the meanings of books. Today, our culture is bombarded with advertisements. Everyday it seems as though we have less time to ourselves. Today we are not burning books and bookstores are popular, but we still seem to ban books for one reason or another. Fifty years later the book still remains relevant to our society.
Fahrenheit 451 is a brilliant novel. In my opinion, it is as meaningful perhaps even more so than it was when it was written in 1950. The novel shows what censorship can do to a society, and the importance of free speech. People must learn to accept different views, whether they agree totally or not. We must always be open to new opportunities that arise and never except the norm. Everyone should read Fahrenheit 451, take what they learn from it and apply it to their everyday lives. Overall, I think that the novel has a good message and I am glad that I spent my time reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Fahrenheit 451
Review: Imagine you live in a world where no one thought. No one thinks about their job, no one thinks about their rights, no one thinks about their families, and no one thinks about their education. Imagine, there were no worries in the world. Does this appeal to you? Fahrenheit 451 is a novel about a man coming to know the destructive society he is living in. His culture is such that if you own a book, you are burnt along with the book. For people who read are corrupted, their minds have been filled with silly ideas and shouldn't be able to spread them to others. People aren't educated well, and have no opinion. This leads people into a culture where thought is prohibited. He meets a girl who opens up his eyes into "a past where people [were] not afraid"(on the back of the Book). The story outlines the struggle that came with his recognition and and a changed, happier Montag. I loved the book, and think it taught many lessons. Although the world Montag lives in is not alike to ours in that our society prohibits us to think, I would still say that we are on our way to it. This book should be read by our entire populous. It helped me realize the blinding culture that we live in. I rate this book 5 stars. Good writing. Good themes. Good story. Amazing lesson.
Rating:
Summary: A message that grows more important every day
Review: It was a pleasure to burn. So begins, with this absolutely perfect opening line, Ray Bradbury's celebrated exposition of the dangers of censorship. Everybody knows that Fahrenheit 451 is a novel about book-burning, but this story goes much deeper than those not having read it may suspect. Its message truly does become even more germane and prophetic with every passing day. The skeleton of the plot is rather basic, really. Guy Montag is a fireman whose job it is to burn books and the houses in which these dangerous manifestations of inane scribbling reside - usually hidden. No one even remembers a time when firemen actually put out fires. We join Guy's life as he enters into a cusp of uncertainty. He has dared to pilfer a book here and there and stash them in his house, a most dangerous crime indeed. He soon meets a free-spirited teenager who breathes life into his state of uncertainty and opens his mind to brand new thoughts and possibilities. When she makes him admit that he is not happy, his life is changed forever. He can't take the lack of substance all around him, the wife who thinks of nothing but "the family" (a type of interactive programming that dominates the living room), the impending war which everyone essentially ignores. He knows there must be something else in life, and he comes to believe that the enlightenment he is after must surely be contained in books. Montag's conversations with his Fire Chief on this subject are quite astounding and revealing, and between this and Montag's friendship with an old former professor, we learn how Montag's world came to be this way. The government did not simply ban books overnight. Censorship started slowly and at low levels. Some minority group complained about this - deleted; another group complained about that - gone; these fellows over here object to so-and-so - zip. So many little pieces of books were removed that, over time, the very essence of books was destroyed. While the government has now come to insist that reading books is a crime, the horrible truth of the matter is that the society itself, in its fractious ways, is the party responsible for this tragic state of affairs. Can there be a more timely topic for our own time? We continually see history books being rewritten, "objectionable" words, phrases, and (horror of horrors) ideas removed from novels and poems so that no one can possibly be offended by anything under the sun. Censorship is a cancer on society, and the world needs visionaries such as Ray Bradbury to forcefully draw attention to the cold hard facts that a majority of the population seems to ignore or fails to acknowledge. Once the true meaning has been chopped out of the books lining our shelves, it will be too late to reverse the momentum without the aid of some kind of miracle. Fahrenheit 451's message is one that all people should be exposed to, and this novel is such a quick (but powerful) read that everyone really should read it. As horrible as it is to envision, I fear that this type of censorship could indeed happen here.
Rating:
Summary: If you like reading, you'll like this book
Review: I like books that teach me things. Fahrenheit 451 is similar to other books like 1984 and Brave New World, where humanity is just a shell of what it used to be. However, 451 presents a problem much more slippery and troubling than 1984 in my mind. How do you help someone who doesn't want to be helped? Bradbury's prose takes a little getting used to, but his message needs to be understood. It's a message that grows more important everyday, with classics being exchanged for cliff notes and books being banned because they offend someone (huck finn, uncle tom's cabin, catcher in the rye). This is the first step to Bradbury's nightmare. To me, 451 represents the ultimate victory of things like MTV, reality television and political correctness. Humanity is reduced to one plastic mold - through laziness or censorship - and everyone is loving it. These characters don't realize how empty their lives are; entertainment and cheap thrills are king here. Instead of attempting to answer humanity's most profound question, the world of 451 pretends they don't exist. One last thing: Clarisse is a trip - her character really catches a living quality I don't see often in books. With Fahrenheit 451, I learned a lot.
Rating:
Summary: A good book, a bad ending
Review: Guy Montage is a fireman. But he doesn't stop houses from burning down. He starts the fire. They light the houses with books on fire, becuase books are considered bad. Not all books, but some, like the Bible, and any book containing thought. Books like porn, and goverment writings were premited. This is how the goverment at the time controled the people. By not letting them learn. Montage meets his new next door neighbor. Her name is Clairesse. Which in Spainish means clarity. And she does live up to her name. She makes Montage think for the first time. She asks him the most simple question, that can also be the most difficult. "Are you happy". Montage thinks about this and realizes that he isn't. he wife trys to comit suicide, and she lives in a alter reality. SO he turns to his "enemy", books. He starts to wonder what is in the books that he burns. And he realizes that he has been stealing books all the time he has been a fireman. So he gets the illegan books and starts to read them. The he goes to an old professer and they hatch a plan to re-print these books. Durring this time Montage has to face his fireman captain, Beatty. He also knows that the goverment is bad for holding the knowledge back, that is in books. But unlike Montage, he is doing nothing about it. Through out this book there are glimpses of the people, who like Montages wife, are clueless. Montage yells at woman who only care about the "family", a TV show that lets you interact with the characters. Then he finds that it is his house that is to be burned down. And that he has to light the match. Montage goes through many stages in this book. He starts like a new born baby, not used to the world that he is in. He grows as the book goes along. From a newborn to a fifteen year old child. Just exploring the world, and startign to make a change.
Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: It's not a bad book. But Fahrenheit 451 is hardly representative of the best that the Sci-fi genre has to offer, and it's a shame that it's endless place on students "summer reading lists" hasn't been challenged. For some reason fahrenheit 451, the Martian Chronicles and 1984 seem to have been decided on as the representatives of science fiction according to your average english teacher... and that's doing the students a disservice. So, read and enjoy this book, but if you find it a bit dry and it's your first forray into SF, by all means keep exploring. There are SO many better books out there...
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