Book Club Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

In honor of Banned Books Week back in September, for October Book Club read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Mostly serious comments about the book:

I picked this book because it’s an all-time banned book, and it’s one of those classics I’ve always meant to read.

I could tell it was a short story padded out. There were still some questions unanswered.

I opened it and read through the whole thing, I just kept going.  I really liked it a lot. It had a lot of strengths, some weaknesses.

I never read it in school, I was happy to read it. I just couldn’t enjoy it. I was frustrated that there was a lot of “telling.”

I wasn’t in love with it, but there were definitely a lot of things I thought were timely.

The first time I read it, I was 12. If I was going to be a book, this is the one I’d be.

I adore Ray Bradbury.  I love this book.

I enjoyed the allegorical aspect.

As technology progresses, it becomes more true instead of less.

I was so excited to read it; I read it in junior high.  It was so despairing and heavy I thought do I have to read more?

I liked the imagery.

I wanted some parts of it fleshed out.

I was disappointed Millie didn’t remember [spoiler]. She was one-dimensional.

I never read it, wanted to read it.

It was good, well-written, good plot.  I just couldn’t get as connected to it as I would have liked.  I loved the ideas but it didn’t stay with me.

I loved it. Read right through it.  Bought a copy, I want my whole family to read it.  I want to spread it around.

I saw the allegory. I enjoyed it. One thing that bothered me, the 50s attitude as far as women were concerned.  He couldn’t envision a future where women were anything else.

It would have been awesome as a short story or as a novel.

There were beautiful images but no connections.

It didn’t grip me but I loved the conceit.

You may recall that I, Jules, read this book last December during our Book Club layoff. I did re-read it this month and had an interesting experience in that this time, I was aware of its faults as I wasn’t the first time I read it.  I do agree with many of the comments above.  I do believe it’s important, though, to read the Afterward and Coda form later editions.  Many of these issues are addressed there.  And, yes, it was originally a short story, The Fireman.

And, of course, this means that I can once again post one of my (and Tricia’s) fave videos (still hella NSFW):