Rating: 
Summary: A Rude Awakening
Review: This book is by far one of my favorite books ever, along with Lord of the Flies. It starts out where Guy Montag is a happy, yet braindead fireman who seems to love his job. Which is burning houses that contain any books. Set in the future, everything seems backwards. Television seems to run their lives. No one reads. People on the street drive more than eighty miles an hour, which causes them to knock people over. And no one seems to care when someone dies. They just drive around knocking people over. Montag's wife Mildred (if memory serves) is just as braindead and likes to watch "the family" and that terrible clown show where the clown gets run over by a train in the walls, which are like giant TV screens that completely surroud her and engulf her. But Montag meets a girl who shows him the beauty of life outside their brainless conformaties. She tells him that, long ago, firemen put fires out, not started them. And he starts to wonder why there are no more porches or decks for people to sit on and talk. He wonders why there are people who love books so much that they would be willing to be burnt with their books. And he wonders what is really in the books.... So while he is reading (illegally) Mildred and her friends are sitting around watching the walls and talking about how many abortions or husbands they've had like it's nothing at all. Montag tries to get Mildred to read with him, but she thinks it's wrong and leaves. All the while, Captain Beatty, a chief at the fire station where Montag works is suspicious of Montag owning books, but he can't prove anything. Until the night Mildred leaves Montag and pulls the alarm that let's the firemen know someone has books in their house. Montag is shocked to have to burn his own house to the ground. He kills Beatty and the other two firemen with the flamethrower and runs away. The police are pursuing him but he eventually gets away, with the help of an old man who used to be a professor. In the end the city blows up. It is kind of a representation of the terrible lives the people there were living and how our society could someday end up like their's. It is a really beautiful book, science fiction at it's finest. Ray Bradbury did an amazing job with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Frightening; wonderfully told story
Review: Of the people I know who have read this book, roughly three-fourths of them loved it and the other fourth hated it. I would be in the former group.Fahrenheit 451 tells of a not too distant future where all books are banned, and anyone caught with even one book has it, and the rest of their belongings, burned. It describes a future where human life means next to nothing and war is not uncommon. I won't go any further into the plot, as many other reviewers already have. Ray Bradbury has a mastery of the English language that requires the book to be read slowly in order to be fully understood, but it is ultimately very rewarding. For the type of book it is, it is the perfect length. It has just enough details to keep you interested, but not too many to bog down the enjoyment. And it is paced perfectly. I've seen this book getting quite a few comparisons to Orwell's 1984. I have read both books, and I don't think they really compare. 1984 is a slower, much more detailed look into a government, while Fahrenheit 451 is faster paced and focuses on one aspect of the government of the future. I've read the book no less than four times, and enjoy it more each time. It is now one of my favorite books. It does have to be read slowly due to Bradbury's metaphorical way of writing. I consider it Bradbury's masterpiece, and while all may not agree, you should at least give it a try, taking time to absorb exactly what it is Bradbury is saying.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing Concept Not Quite Pulled Off
Review: As a young writer, Bradbury bubbles with ideas in "Fahrenheit 451", and the end result is a nice little novel about the evils of censorship and government control. The protagonist, a book-burner named Guy Montang, turns a complete 180 during the beginning of the novel, falling into the lure of freethinking in a world of blarring propaganda and social norms, of repressed emotions and the fast-paced, dangerous city lifestyle. The book has faults. The actual writing is spotty at times, and the extremely circumstantial plot does not complement the thought-provoking concept presented in F451. This is not written as well as, say, Orwell's 1984, and likewise it is not as powerful or as captivating. Though the two books cannot be fairly compared, it proves as an example that the book is lacking something, that sustenance of style that makes a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: I HATE THIS BOOK
Review: I thought this was the worst book I ever read. There was no point and way to confusing. he would ramble on about stuff not even importnat to the plot! i hated reading this! stay away from this book!
Rating: 
Summary: A Society Where Thinking is Discouraged
Review: "Fahrenheit 451," a book in which the future is a scary place. In the beginning, however, it doesn't seem that way. Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to create fires, not stop them. He burns books. Books, in this day and age, are illegal. Why? Because books promote thinking, and thinking creates ideas, and the leaders of the world don't want people thinking anymore. Montag steals one book, and then another, and another. He becomes fascinated with them so much, that he kills his superior officer when he finds out Montag has books. This book, although calm through most of the story, is a frightening look into the future. People don't think, so therefore, when someone gets killed, no one cares. There is a huge war going on, but no one knows why, and still no one cares. Bradbury really took the name of science fiction and put it to work, creating a book that was so unique it stretches your imagination beyond all belief.
Rating:
Summary: Relevance to our times
Review: "Fahrenheit 451" a metaphor on the freedom of speech. It is not in literary terms that knowledge can be controlled by burning books; there are other ways to accomplish that. As the world is full of people; running with lit matches. Ray Bradbury is basing his attack on every editor; censor; lobbyist; government that see themselves as the caretaker of knowledge and literature; and they control by shackle the words of an author who dare to speak out. The question is very relevant to present times. The news is splattered with stories of doctored intelligence documents; on the bases of which dreaded events occurred.
Rating:
Summary: A younger view
Review: Reading over the other reviews, they basically sum up how fantastic this book is. I just wanted to add that when I read this book in my seventh grade English class, although it used a huge amount of symbolism and metaphors that would normally be hard for a younger people to understand, the majority of my reading group was able to decipher the book and take a great deal out of reading it. We worked together to figure out a few very difficult things but in general this book was not impossible for a young person. So, to anyone that wants to enrich themselves and really take a deeper look at the horrors of instant gratification, I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Conspiracy Theory...
Review: The book talks about a fireman and his group starting fires and burning books. They were trying to get rid of the past, they did not want to leave a trace of what happened before, they believed that the characters in the books never existed. That reading those books would only make us think and creat ideas that could harm us... Montag "the fireman" meets Clarisse, his 17 year old neighbour, and that changes his life totally. She opens his eyes to things he never thought of before, she takes him back to simple feelings, and warns him about the future... Montag tries with no luck to change that at home, but his wife "Mildred" is hooked on the sopa operas and reality TV. So he decides that something major has to be changed which takes him to do the unthinkbale with the help of Clarisse, and a professor... Stick with the books, they will make you see things this world is trying to forget, ignore, and burn on purpose. Great book, read between the lines...
Rating:
Summary: a classic
Review: When I first heard of the basic plot in which Firemen burn books rather than putting out fires I was a little skeptical. I was most definitely mistaken. This prophetic short story was engrossing. There is nothing I can say which hasn't been said before. Yes the underlying themes aren't so underlying but they are multilayered and provide a buffet of ideas to feast upon.
Rating:
Summary: ideas, government
Review: I personally enjoyed Fahrenheit 451 very much. I do think that Bradbury's writing style is unique and packs a lot into a small amount of space, but I disagree that the aesthetic qualities are the highlight of his writing. I think that the ideas behind the story are what makes the book so compelling. I also disagree that the book is lacking due to a missing thick plot. I think that the lack of petty details about how exactly the society is set up or functions helps both the author and the reader to remain focused on the ideas. I think that there is a clear enough explanation for the way in which the society went from not being interested in books to burning them. As time passed more advanced forms of technology replaced reading as the mainstream form of entertainment, and people were less attached to books. Then the government that is in place at the time the story is told takes over, and decides to have all books burned. Not all people in the novel burn books, only the firefighters, and the whole thing is very regulated by the government. The government makes this decision to get rid of the possibility of people gaining knowledge pertaining to ideas about revolutions, and better ways of life. This way the people will blindly accept the government, and be content even though their lives lack any real relationships. The story is an exaggeration of problems Bradbury sees in society and of fears of what could happen in the future. It forces the reader to think about how we spend our time, how much we really know or don't know, and how much is within our control.
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