EXCERPT

Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future.

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.

When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

Fahrenheit 451
By Ray Bradbury
192 Pages
Genre: Science Fiction
ISBN-13: 978-1451673319
Rating: ♣♣♣♣♣

READING GUIDE

One of my goals this year is to read as much classics as I can. I grew up not reading these classics because, back then, books were considered a luxury in our household. Thanks to the technology of e-books, I can grab access to hard to find classics that are not sold in book stores near me.

BOOK REVIEW

Fahrenheit 451 gave me my first "feels" in a book this year. I was having a hard time powering through the pages because I find it saddening to live in such world. It's also oh so good that I can't not finish reading it. I can understand why this book withstood the test of time.

The theme revolves around the importance of knowledge, a mind of your own, having ideas, it's relation to banned books, censorships and the love for reading. In present time, we still hear in the news how a group of people burn books to show their dislike to a certain idea or existence.

As a book lover, a self-confessed bibliophile, my heart breaks every time I read about Guy and the rest of the firemen burning books, houses full of them, even if it caused the death of a woman who loves them so much.

It gave me the chills on how Guy wanted to share his new discovery to his wife, the love for books, and in the end being betrayed by that one person who he thought should have loved him.

If you love books and is curious of classics, definitely read this book!

FACT

Ray Bradbury was an American fantasy, science fiction novelist. The  Fahrenheit 451 was first published in 1953. The book is divided in three parts. Fahrenheit 451 refers to the temperature that Bradbury understood to be the autoignition point of paper.