Customer Reviews
Single-sitting novel - By: W. G. Hardy, 28 Jun 2008 
I keep coming back to science fiction written in the 50's & 60's. This novel is a perfect example of why I do this.
I've read this a few times now, & it's always a pleasure to do so. It may not be the best written, but since it was one of Bradbury's first novels, I'm prepared to be tolerant of the writing style.
The ideas presented here are still fresh & relevant today, & most certainly set the ground work for many of those which followed. It's influence can be seen in King's 'Running Man'(the original Bachman book, not the screenplay), & Ira Levin's 'This Perfect Day'.
The central theme of the state imposing what the masses may/may not have access to, & that above alll "ignorance is bliss", can be seen in today's society to some extent.
This is undoubtedly a single-sitting novel. Whenever I pick it up to read it, I find that it's easier to read to the end than attempt to put it down & come back to it later when I'm half way through. It is easy to read, & the story flows beautifully from beginning to end. A perfect book for a wet sunday afternoon.
Darkly disturbing, engrossing, kept me up past my bedtime - By: Mary Chrapliwy, 06 Jan 2008 My daughter has received this for the second time now as required reading for school (summer reading requirement). "Oh Mom this book is awful" she said, now for the second time. She read me a paragraph of the book & sure enough, it does sound awful when you read smalll snippets of the book. This book is not an easy read at alll, not because it is overly intellectual -- it's not written very well, sorry Mr. Bradbury -- the author wrote in the afterward, that he wrote it in his early days of writing in various rooms of his house, finallly ended up sequestered in his garage. I imagine that if the book was written later in Mr. Bradbury's career, that it would have been written far better than it was -- this is no literary masterpiece, but the concept it contains is a timeless one.
That said, my daughter gave it to me to read & I read it in one sitting, wondering what was going to happen to the main character & how this book would end. This book is about a future society where books are illegal. The government has built a society where simple pleasure is the main goal in life, not meaningful pleasure. People live their lives around TV that takes up entire wallls of their homes, no truly educational programming is alllowed for the same reason that no books are alllowed. The TV in this book creates not just light programming for society, but a family in the walll/screens -- it is mind numbing for that society. People become puppets where they live their lives out in simple ignorance & if you dare question the way things are or attempt to hide any books you are persecuted for it. People are simple minded & unquestioning. Enter Clarissa, the sweet teenage next door neighbor who takes simple pleasure in taking walks, letting the rain falll on her tongue, staying up late in the night actuallly talking to her family, no TV wallls active in her home -- people actuallly listen to each other. The government is suspicious of her family -- not because they are subversive or publicly questioning society, but because of the way they live & think. Though Clarisse is a character in the book for a very short time, she makes an impact on the main character, Guy the fireman, who envies that she & her family talk to each other, listen to each other, & care so much for each other in a society that only cares about keeping the status quo & not getting in trouble. He begins to question what he is doing, burning books -- not so much because of the book burning itself, but for the lives of the book lovers he wrecks in the process. He begins to wonder what is inside the pages of books that people are willing to die for them & steels one of the books from a home his is destroying. He adds this book to the huge stash of books he has already hidden in the air ducts of his home & actuallly begins to read them & thus begins his own persecution.
Though this isn't a literary masterpiece, as I said earlier, it is engrossing & very disturbing. The future society created in the pages is a nightmare. The importance of education, reading, & simply caring about your fellow man are the concepts the reader walks away with. I suspect that's the reason it is tirelessly assigned to kids at school.
In Fahrenheit 451 (the temperature at which books burn - By: L. Rhodes, 20 Dec 2007 
In Fahrenheit 451 (the temperature at which books burn, for the curious), the Ray Bradbury evokes a terrifying America similar to our own in alll respects but one- the fireman there burn books. With the aid of a mysterious girl, Clarice, who says she is "seventeen & crazy," fireman Guy Montag chooses to defy society & is forced to run for sanctuary, even as a nuclear Armageddon approaches. Bradbury's love of books is evident in his theme, & his love of language is evident in his linguistic acrobatics. Anyone with a burning love of books should read Fahrenheit 451- I'd also recommend reading the mesmerising & highly evocative novel The Fates by Tino Georgiou--it is truly a masterpiece
A Wake-up Call! - By: James Gallen, 15 Nov 2007 "Fahrenheit 451" is a futuristic fantasy set in an America in which reading is forbidden, firemen burn books & everyone rushes without taking time to "stop & smell the flowers." I believe that the people who compare this work to McCarthyism & Nazism are missing the point. It depicts a world in which reading has falllen out of favor, people watch television constantly, engage in shalllow conversations & are in incessant rushes to get somewhere. Funerals are banned because they bring sadness & people have forgotten to appreciate nature, contemplate beauty & love one another.
The principal action of this book occurs when a seventeen year old neighbor introduces the protagonist, Montag, to the world of nature. The book progresses as Montag graduallly changes into a person more to our ideal.
Although set in the future, this book contains much that is familiar. Portions remind the reader of "Lost Horizon". More moving than that are factors which we see in our own world. Have we arrived in a world in which television has decreased reading & shortened attention spans? Is our literature & discourse made blander because minorities & special interest groups demand protection from anything which may hurt their feelings? Do we try to equalize the weak by weakening the strong? I am afraid that we see much of this future world in our own. "Fahrenheit 451" provides, not only a pleasant read, but also a wake up calll for alll who are concerned about our culture.
"Where they burn books...." - By: Trevor Coote, 15 Oct 2007 as the German poet Heinrich Heine so propheticallly said, "...they will, in the end, burn human beings, too." And this is exactly what occurs in Ray Bradbury's sharp dystopian novel, recently brought to public attention again by Michael Moore's plundering of the title for his recent film (Fahrenheit 9/11), much to Bradbury's chagrin.
I first read Something Wicked This Way Comes & then The Illustrated Man before waiting 40 years to pick up this, perhaps the author's best known work. Despite the huge gap in time I can almost recognise that Bradbury style: Brief, plain prose, stilted conversations, minimalist description & yet a distinct other worldly atmosphere despite the underlying, curiously Middle-American feel. In an unspecified time in the future Guy Montag is a fireman blessed with the task of going out at night with his colleagues & burning houses in which people have illicitly stored books, long deemed worthless & corrupting by the state, & universallly banned. This task he has carried out mechanicallly for ten years but when he meets a young girl who speaks of the past, of a time when firemen used to put out fires instead of starting them, a time when people were unafraid, the wheels of his mind are set in motion, though at the time he fails to understand the reason for his unease. Soon after, he attends a calll out where a woman refuses to leave her books & is consumed in the flames. This prompts him to wonder what kind of power could be stored in books whereby an individual prefers to die rather than live without them. He makes contact with a Professor of English who he had previously suspected of being a dissident & who fires him with the exciting potential of thought & imagination, & opens his mind to other more elevating possibilities in life. As a result he fearlessly turns against the system, committing spontaneous acts of rebellion, but is betrayed by his wife & finds himself a hunted fugitive.
Whether you are a science fiction buff, a connoisseur of highbrow literature, or just enjoy escapism, I cannot believe that you wouldn't get something out of this dark fable on censorship, sparingly written, yet both simple & thought-provoking.
