Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

This book has been on my radar for years. I was never assigned it in high school or college but everyone I knew had read it and found it to be profound. I have picked up copies at library books sales through the years (two to be exact) but it took listening to the audiobook version to finally experience this amazing classic book.

Guy Montag lives in a world ruled by screens. His wife, Mildred is happy to be entertained by her screen “family” who live on three of the four walls of her parlor room walls. And Guy has a prestigious job as a firefighter. Except the fireman of Bradbury’s world are not needed to put out fires. Rather, they are assigned to start them. Firemen are tasked with burning the most illegal of all substances – books.

I cannot stop thinking about the world Bradbury describes. Certainly, a world ruled by screens probably seemed like a futuristic nightmare when Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in the 1940s. But, as I sit here typing on a laptop while watching on-demand television and texting with friends, it is clear that in 2018 our reliance on screens is a reality few of us can deny.

Certainly all book lovers know people who scoff at our book collection. We have smart, kind, intelligent people who say with pride, “I never read.” Our hearts break. We are confused. How could a person not understand the importance of books?

In Montag’s world reading books is not just scoffed at, it is illegal. And as I finished the story I couldn’t help but wonder, how far is the distance between scoffing at books and burning them? Because, after all, “You can’t make someone change their mind.”

Tell me, please!

Have you read Fahrenheit 451? Are you intrigued? I want to hear your thoughts!