Title: Fahrenheit 451
Author: Ray Bradbury
Cover:
Description: Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires. And he enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs or the joy of watching pages consumed by flames, never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid. Then Guy met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think. And Guy Montag suddenly realized whathe ahd to do.
My Read: In 10th grade honors English, we spent an entire 9 weeks reading this book. I’m not sure how one can read a book of only 160 pages over 9 weeks but we did it. And talked it to death. Some of us loved this book and the experience of the read (me) and some of us hated it (Amber). However, since I spent so much of my life reading it that first time, I haven’t read it since. I recently saw it on sale and realized that I didn’t own a copy and that it might be time for a re-read 15 years later. And so last Thursday I read it. All in one day. Mrs. Robbins would probably crap her pants to hear that. And again I liked it a lot. I was also interested to see that there was very little that I didn’t understand the first time. Although I certainly understood the perspective of Montag and even his wife, Mildred in a way that I did not the first time. It’s so easy to identify with the 17 year old when you’re 15 yourself. And much easier to understand how your life can get away from you without you noticing when you’re 30. I’m so glad I re-read this. Maybe I’ll re-read some other high school highlights.
Quotes:
1. “We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while”.
2. “Lord, there were a lot of lovely books once, before we let them go”.
3. “The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies”.
4. “That’s the good part of dying; when you’ve nothing to lose, you run any risk you want”.
5. “If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you’ll never learn”.
