From the back cover:

"Fahrenheit 451: the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are there any books in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.

The classic novel of a post-literate future, Fahrenheit 451 stands alongside Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World as a prophetic account of Western civilisation's enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity. Ray Bradbury's vision is astonishingly prophetic: wall-sized television screens showing interactive soap operas; billboards two hundred feet long, so that speeding drivers can make sense of them; a populace oblivious of everything but the constant music and news delivered by miniature speakers plugged into their ears.

Bradbury's powerful and poetic prose combines with an uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a novel which, forty years on from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock."

I liked this very much. I could hardly put the book down as I was really eager to find out what happens to the main character. Quite much happens in such a short book (170 pages), but the plot doesn’t move too fast either.

Bradbury’s vision of the future is chillingly correct in some aspects. We don’t have TV’s the size of a wall in our homes just yet but that’s probably where we’re headed. Mindless entertainment that keeps people from thinking too much is already here (I’m thinking Big Brother and Jersey Shore). Jeez. This has stood the test of time really well.

Posting today to maid-of-kent. Happy reading! :)

Thanks a lot duskiska. Looking forward to reading this one.

Hailed as a bit of a masterpiece I thought I should read this one, so it's now ticked off the list. I didn't enjoy it that much - not a happy story - but I was rather impressed with the Mechanical Hound.

On its way to shnedwards.

It's here! Thank you very much maid-of-kent for sending this to me!

This is the book that us bookish types are supposed to like, isn't it? We all agree that books are A Good Thing and shudder at the thought of a world where books are forbidden. Except for rule books, they're allowed. And technical manuals. And science textbooks, it seems. So it's not all books which are banned, just fiction, poetry and philosophy. Arts and humanities are out, but science and technology escapes the bonfire. What about geography books? Are they allowed? Geography's a humanity, but physical geography can get quite sciencey. Maybe physical geography is allowed, but human geography goes in the incinerator. Drama's definitely out. Oh, but all the housewives get written scripts so they can read along with the interactive soap operas. Does that not count, then? I'm starting to find holes in this whole premise. This illiterate future is not quite so illiterate as advertised.

I can believe all too easily in an illiterate future, just not this one. I tried to suspend my disbelief, but it kept falling down. Usually, the plot doesn't bother me so much as long as I enjoy a writer's style. I really don't get on with Ray Bradbury's style either. Oh dear. But it did get quite exciting and I read it all the way to the end, so it gets half marks.

Putting into the box for the Colchester Unconvention.

To be left on the NSS table at the Unconvention for paganfrog.

thankyou shnedwards for leaving me this book at the nss table. i was unable to thankyou in person due to hectic timetables for me, but i hope ican bump into you at future uncon

This bk has not dated. How've it gave me a nightmare!!