Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is the story of Guy Montag in a future where most people live their lives in willful ignorance and the job of firemen is to find books and burn them. The story follows Guy, who is a firemen, as his new neighbor gets him to open his eyes to the world around him. The plot is enough to keep any reader chugging along, but the main hook to this book is Ray Bradbury's disturbing vision of the future. You can form your own opinions on if its an accurate vision, but whether you think it is going to happen or it is just a load of crap, it should defineatly get you to think about the world around you. This book certainly deserves the 5 stars I gave it and if you haven't read it then I seriously suggest you get a copy.

Fahrenheit 451. 451 is the temperature at which paper burns. How did we find this out? Learning, and with learning comes books, and according to this story with books comes burning. This story follows one man, one guy actually. Guy Montag is a fireman. However not the definition of fireman of which you think. This is a world where the past is burnt and all is forgotten and minorities are eliminated. Books are for burning and your family is all on a T.V. wall. People die and nobody cares. Nothing matters as long as people are happy. Houses are fireproof and books are the exact opposite. I really liked this book. Bradbury's book shows our own flaws as well as those to come. Montag's fire captain, Beatty, tells him how the firemen got started, "`Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to popular songs [1] or the name of state capitals [2] or how much corn Iowa grew last year [3].'" We have all of the game shows. 1. Don't forget the lyrics. 2. Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader. 3. Jeopardy. This book was written in the 50's. Over 50 years later (almost 60), this is beginning to form. I hope that this does not happen. For if it does, who knows what we will lose next. Will it be our real families? Our front porches? Our books? Our identity? This book is very controversial. It's ironic that every one in this book is anti controversial and don't ask questions and yet this book brings up so many questions. It also makes you question yourself and what you think. With all of this technology being brought into our world, we're not against it but we don't hate it. With all of the new innovations by the time we buy something it's already obsolete. When you buy a computer in a few weeks they all ready have an updated version. Sometime its just nice to stop and smell the roses. Thank you for your time.
-Marvin

An interesting story of book censorship and the consequences of mankind if we allow this to get out of had. This version of the book has an interview with the author at the ned which I really enjoyed reading.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R12LLQD8WBKTHT Fahrenheit 451Fahrenheit 451: A Novel

Mention "Farenheit 451" in casual conversation, and the casual response is (especially if you are highschool or lower): "Ooh. Did it freak you out?" And yet, is the "Farenheit 451" of our cultural stereotype all that accurate? Yes, Bradbury's world is a distressing one, but the story itself is, in the end, about perserverance, about the human love of knowledge, and about how a group of people lives to fight against a world that doesn't want to know. As Montag, or "Ecclesiastes," discovers, there are still things worth fighting for. And while we may cringe every time a Chesterton slides into the incinerator, the true meaning of the book lies in Montag's determination to save some knowledge from that incinerator.

Is it a distressing setting? Yes, of course. As some of the other reviewers have said, that often is because it's far closer to the truth than we would like. But, of course, that's the reason Bradbury wrote the book. But under all that is a story of hope; a story that, if we dig just deep enough, can empower us to face the danger and the distress and to let us prevent "Farenheit 451" from being a nonfiction book.

So the one thing you should know if you're not sure you want to read "451" is that it's not "A Clockwork Orange." Not by a long shot. In the end--and with Bradbury's writing, you will get there fast--it is a distressing world, but a heartwarming story.