Saturday, October 9, 2010

Paula reviews Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451Book: Fahrenheit 451
Author: Ray Bradbury
Publisher: Ballantine Books, first published 1953
Where’d I get it: I bought it
Why I read it: I like classics, felt like a failure for not having read this one yet.


This book is not important.


If you get any message from reading Fahrenheit 451, it should be that the book itself is not important. But the ideas in the book are. The ideas in this book are important.


Fahrenheit 451 fulfilled my reading lusts in so many ways. It was stylistically fantastic, almost like poetry instead of prose. I often reread a whole page just to savor some of the thoughts in it. In addition, Bradbury’s afterword and coda, are just as wonderful. Example, “When we forget how close the wilderness is in the night, my grandpa said, someday it will come in and get us, for we will have forgotten how terrible and real it can be.” (p. 157) . Next lust it fulfilled was my dystopian literature lust. Bradbury throws you in to the world and takes his time to explain things fully, and then lets his world destroy itself. Which is awesome. Last, it’s a book about books. And every book lover should read it for that fact.


The world Bradbury created was so stressful for me, I could not picture how people were outlaws for owning and reading books. If you were caught, your house was burned down. It was scary though, because even though this was written almost 60 years ago, it still feels plausible today. The people in his book are shallow, ever attentive to the ever present TV and are willing to turn their backs on anyone. Bradbury’s novel feels like a wake up call that humans are turning their backs on the more important ideas of our lifetime.


I’m so glad I bought this book, I had been wanting to read it for awhile. Also, I had been told multiple times that I would enjoy it, and I did. This book is a classic for a reason. But that’s not important.


5 book burning stars.

4 comments:

  1. Paula, so glad you liked this book! I loved it as well when I read it last year. With me when I was reading it, I enjoyed it but didn't think I'd think much more about it once I was finished.

    Wrong. I couldn't sleep the night I finished it because of all of the parallels I could draw in todays world.

    Also I couldn't think of which would be the book I would save if I could only chose one...

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  2. While this was a good book/story line, I just didn't enjoy it that much. It was hard for me to finish. I'm glad you enjoyed it though!

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  3. I don't know how many times I have read this book. It's wonderful in so many different ways. Glad you liked it too.

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