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"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." Thus says FAHRENHEIT 451's Professor Faber in explaining to Guy Montag the importance of the "telling detail" of books. Montag is ready to hear these words, his job as a book burner in this twisted society of Ray Bradbury's invention no longer makes sense to him.

Books are illegal in the world of FAHRENHEIT 451. So is driving under 55 m.p.h. Faster is always considered better. Montag's society doesn't want anyone to stop and reflect, because it realizes that if people stop and think about things, they'll get restless. As Montag's fire captain tells him, "You ask why to a lot of things and you wind up very unhappy indeed." An important difference between this futuristic society created in 1953 and George Orwell's world of 1984 is that Orwell's government was top-down while all the minorities (of every race, color and creed) in Bradbury's dystopia got together to burn everything that offended them. In this case, lack of tolerance for differing voices led to no voices at all--democracy has eaten itself by misunderstanding itself. Problems aren't faced; they are burned. This is the world Guy Montag rebels against; how deeply it reflects our own world is something to think about along the way.

Ray Bradbury is a good writer, one who encourages people to ask the question "why". He wants everyone to have a voice and to be able to express himself or herself, but not in such a way that they drown out other voices--the best ideas, he seems to believe, will naturally come to the fore. A short book of under 180 pages, FAHRENHEIT 451 is often assigned to middle school students. For those--like myself--who missed it in school, it still stands as an important work for all lovers of reading, freedom, and ideas for their own sake.

A Review by Ryan

One night, while walking home from work, Guy Montag runs into a girl named Clarisse McClellan. This girl changes Montag's life and helps him notice that he not really happy. This setting is in the future when books are banned both to read and to have possession of. Montag had a job as a firefighter, but he was not assigned to stop fires from spreading. Instead hid job was to burn books and the houses in which they were hidden. Whenever Montag was at work, he always felt wrong when he was burning books. This change occurred after he met Clarisse. She helped him notice that books were a good thing. But one day at work Montag was faced with choice to either burn a book, or to keep the book and read it. I won't tell you what happens next because that would ruin the book.

I liked a lot of things about this book, but the thing that enjoyed most was the amount of description and detail. When you read the book you could just picture yourself as the main character and see clearly in full detail you surroundings. Most authors lack this amount of imagination. Second I like the pace at which this book flows. It wasn't too fast or too slow. It would first fully explain one part of the story before it moved on to another part. I also liked the way he wrote this book. It was in such a way that you just had to keep reading until you finished the whole book. Third, I liked the vocabulary that Bradbury used. The words he used made his book sound professional, but the words were not so complex that you can't understand them. The vocabulary also helps in the descriptions that Bradbury made.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who has a ninth grade reading level or higher. I think it is the type of book that anyone who reads would enjoy reading this book. People who enjoy science -fiction would like this book even better. I say this is a must read book.

I've heard so many people say they've been influenced by Bradbury (writers and others) and I can see why--this is simply a great novel. Bradbury is really a national treasure. If you ever get the chance to hear him speak, don't miss him. His stories are priceless. (Especially the one about his anger at people telling him for years that he was crazy to believe man would set foot on the moon in his lifetime. He said he called up every person who laughed in his face the night Neil Armstrong did--and pretty much laughed in their faces!) There is a fantastic one-on-one interview with him in the Walt Disney Tomorrowland-Disney in Space and Beyond DVD (interviewer is Leonard Maltin). His friendship with Disney (a fellow futurist) was fascinating. But it's the sense of wonder and child-like curiosity and optimism (not childish or blind optimism as he clearly understands what can create a dystopia) that make you realize why he is a national treasure. He's inspired me to look to the future, to look up, to look forward, to always be wary and alert to what can go wrong, (and the dangers of closed or lazy minds) BUT not to let any of that stop you--that anything is possible in a world willing to believe, in a free world with open and curious minds.