Fahrenheit 451

This Post is Spoiler Free!

Okay this book was fascinating. I can see why it’s considered a classic. It’s the type of book that I don’t particularly want to review because I’m honestly not sure I can review it. So instead, I’ll share a list of reasons why you might want to pick it up:

1. The language of it is beautiful. And super interesting. Between literary quotes, sentences that leave you breathless, and the occasional bout of stream of consciousness writing, the language really offers up many things for a lot of different people.
2. It’s fairly short and to the point. It doesn’t try to push the meaning on you in a million different ways. It presents you with the story and asks you to seek more yourself.
3. It’s literally about books. This is a given. Any and every book/story lover should read anything they can that is about books, in my opinion.
4. On a similar topic, it makes you think about the way you interact with your books: how you find meaning, what you take for granted, and so on.
5. The whole concept is just super interesting. Right? 
6. Also, reading a book about banned books that was also… banned and censored… it’s one of those things that you don’t realize you needed to do until you’ve already done it!
7. There is so much to take away from it, and no one right way to do so. This book has so much to it, I could probably find more with a couple of rereads. As Neil Gaiman said in his 2013 introduction, “If someone tells you what a story is about, they are probably right. If they tell you that is all the story is about, they are very definitely wrong.” This story has a lot to it, and to understand that, you would have to pick it up yourself.

Something I want to say… Don’t read this because you have to. Read it because you want to. The message will be lost on you if you aren’t open to thinking about it. And if you once read it because you had to (for school, as an example), but you didn’t like it then, maybe let yourself try it again? You are a new person now, plus it’s only 158 pages. It isn’t a long read, and I think you may be thankful you gave it another shot.

I never read this in school. Fun fact (that you probably already know about me): I was homeschooled. Our required readings were very, very different. I’m glad they were, though. All of the books I would have read as a kid and young teenager that I wouldn’t have been able to properly understand and could have possibly negatively affected me, I now get to read with a clear, older, more stable mind. The only downside of this is that I did two years for my Bachelor’s in English, and I hadn’t read any of the classics that people talked about. I got on just fine, though! In any case, I’m glad I read this now, as someone who is twenty and has a deep love for books, literature, and storytelling. I think it was more meaningful to me now than it ever could have been in the past.

My last insert… earlier today, my parents, sister, and I had a discussion about how the industry of printed books is dying. Our conversation did not last long at all (especially since it wasn’t the first that we had of this sort), but something my sister said really stood out to me. To paraphrase: Books aren’t a dying industry. People will always read. Just maybe not with hardcopies. It’ll be a different experience, but books will still exist. It was very interesting going from hearing my sister say that (or something very, very similar because my memory isn’t perfect), to reading the last half of this book. In any case, I hope you give Fahrenheit 451 a chance!

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

My Next Read(s):

Spin the Dawn and Unravel the Dusk by Elizabeth Lim