This is Ray Bradbury's 55-year-old futuristic masterpiece about a time when firemen burn books instead of extinguishing fires. (451F is the temperature at which book pages burn.) His fireman protagonist, Guy Montag, has suddenly changed allegiances and become interested in preserving books rather than destroying them. The book is supposedly about censorship, but to me it seemed to be more about apathy. The book burning started after everyone had stopped reading anyway, and the liberal arts schools had mostly disappeared. Montag's professor friend Faber lists the three things that books provide: texture, leisure to absorb the information, and our response to what they teach us. The texture is the fabric of life that books describe, and the more densely woven the fabric, the better the quality of the book. Bradbury's writing style is not very fluid, but his take on the future is noteworthy at times. Not all of his predictions have come to pass, but the bug that Faber puts in Montag's ear made me think of people wearing their cell phones today. Also, the author mentions that the television is used as a babysitter, and he was spot-on about that. However, we don't have vicious mechanical hounds, at least not that I know of, nor do we all live in fireproof houses, unfortunately.

I have known about Fahrenheit 451 for many years, but never picked it up until recently when my daughter brought it home from the school library. She hadn't enjoyed it too much, she said, but some of her friends had. Bradbury, along with Isaac Asimov and a couple of other authors, is an icon of 20th century American science fiction, and this novel offers an excellent display of his prowess. The version I read, published by Ballantine Books, contains an interesting Afterword written by the author in 1982 (the book itself was written in 1953 at a UCLA typing room on typewriters 'which rented out at a dime a half hour.' In it, Bradbury describes the book's c. 1980 adaptation to the stage, in which he further developed certain key characters, namely Clarisse, the mysterious young girl who opens the main character's eyes, and Captain Beatty, the ironically well-read fire chief who is in charge of book burning. Bradbury also mentions changes added by Francois Truffaut, the Director of the film version (see Fahrenheit 451 for the DVD). Appropriately enough for a book about an extreme form of censorship, Bradbury notes that he has avoided the temptation to censor his own young self by bringing some of these additions into a revised version of the novel: "I don't believe in tampering with any young writer's material, especially when that young writer was once myself." A wise decision, judging from the excellence of the original product.

The unfamiliar circumstances in this story are analogous to the present in several aspects, conveying a relatable character in a strange world.

Fahrenheit 451 is a great book to read but deadly to listen to on the CD. Ray Bradbury reads in expressionless monotony. I tried to listen to the first CD five times and finally gave up. Stick with the book where you can supply your own voices.

There is a reason that Fahrenheit 451 is considered a classic.. it is one of those books that we can identify with during any era we have lived in, and our current era is no different. Less and less people are reading "real" books and more and more people reading and giving credence to trash magazines and internet blogs.

I always felt that F451 and 1984 were set if not in the same universe, then maybe universes right next door to each other for they tell similar yet both separately important stories. This book is a cautionary read on society gone wrong, and is one I consider a must read for any reader.

I bought this for my English 10 class and we used it to begin our reading. It matches the novel perfectly and allowed us to stop and discuss often!

Fahrenheit 451
At the tender age of 9, as my 30 year old father lay in a hospital dying of cancer, my grieving young mother packed me off to a theater nearby. The feature was Fahrenheit 451, the year was 1966, and I was amazed by the message in this movie, enough to go back every night for a week, and beg my mom for the book. Growing up, I often reflected on how I lost I would be without books, and vowed I would read voraciously through life, and never willingly be part of a society who believed in spoon feeding propaganda to people to make them complacent. Lo and behold, my America has crept in that direction. The message of the movie is not what Government can do to society, but what society allows those in power to do to control them. Reading is indeed the antidote to blind faith in bad leaders. This movie carries a timeless message, one I have shared with my children and grandchild, and everyone who I have lent it or given one to.

451 is a fantastic, entertaining story that also happens to be a dead-on commentary on American politics (especially the "look over there" strategy employed by the current administration). Well read too.

The other reviewers are dead-on. . .this is one terrific read. . .

One of the top five science fiction novels of all time. A classic. More fun and more complex than 1984.

I do not want to tell much of the story, as the unfolding is part of the intrigue. However now that houses are fire proof the purpose of firemen is performing a service by burning books to maintain the happy social order.

Naturally one fireman goes awry after several emotional incidences from someone burning up with the books to a young neighbor with strange ways, which run counter to his carrier. This leads to all kinds of deviant things like reading. What are you doing now?

One big rift between the book and the movie [Fahrenheit 451 (1966) -- Oscar Werner, Julie Christie] is that in the movie the "written word" was completely removed (even from the credits); where as in the book the state was against was literature and not technical writing.

Books are just symbols of ideas that could have been on the screen also. There is deference between training and education. Among other reasons the book was a symbol of one mans superiority over another in a world of equals.

A super story with a fantastic plot, a great feel and a moral story. Well paced and extremely readable. Sadly shows Ray Bradburys total inability to write anything longer however.

A superb parable (made into a watchable movie by Francois Truffaut) about a future age in which firemen no longer put out fires, but instead start them: their goal is purge the world of books, with their inconvenient, contradictory, and messy ideas. (It takes off from an idea given in the Grand Inquisitor episode of the Brothers Karamazov we just wanted mankind to be happy... the mystery and uncertainty made the people miserable... if we could give them the truth to worship and accept, we could take on the responsibility of dealing with the uncertainty of the cosmos ourselves, and by taking on this suffering we would be Christ ourselves...) The ending of the book is a little weak but overall it is magnificent; don't miss it.

I hated this in its entirety. Although the idea it was based on was engaging, I thought that Bradbury didn't do enough with it. There just wasn't anything really interesting besides the basis. It was a chore to read.

Fahrenheit 451 discusses the topic of censorship and why it is harmful. It shows us how censorship prohibits us from gaining knowledge and how censorship limits us in our thinking.

I hate this book. It is one of the worst books i have ever read.

i couldn't really get into it

I read this book about a month ago, and I'm sure it will, as my life goes on, go down as one of my all-time favorite books. I was so "hooked" with it that I finished it in 28 hours, which is the fastest I've ever read a whole book! A really great book. A sufficiently swift pace, very well-written without being too flowery, interesting plot and intriguing characters. I know this is generally considered a sci-fi book, but while there are elements of science fiction in it, I find more to be a semi-satire, showing how far censorship and "political corectness" might go if we're not too careful. Anyone who gives Farenheit 451 a rating lower than at least a 3 has very poor literary taste and probably considers Superman comic-books to equal Shakespeare. My only real complaint with the book is that Bradbury kept the plot dragging along over the last twenty pages or so when it felt like it had already run out of gas, but the introduction of Grainger and the hobo camp at the end gave an interesting twist to the story so that it didn't get too tedious. I'm not sure how I can really express my feelings about this book, but..I don't know, it's just great! I reccomend it enthusiastically to anyone who hasn't read it already!

It has a great premise, I was really excited about reading it, but it doesn't go anywhere as a story.

The rare sci-fi book that has aged well. Probably Bradbury's best work.

Amazing book. It really makes you think.