Fahrenheit 451

 

Ray Bradbury has written a really thought provoking book in Fahrenheit 451. I initially thought it would be about how children have stopped reading but this book has a much bigger scope. Not that that's much of an issue these days with the Harry Potter books making reading cool again worldwide (and that five point something book for teens in India). Otherwise people only read books from the bestseller list so that they could talk about something at parties (socialites preferring non-fiction).

The story is about a fireman who's having second thoughts about his job but the twist here is that in the book's time line firemen have become instruments of destruction of books. Their job is to burn any books found along with the house they were found in. The protagonist is influenced initially by a flaky teenage girl whose family moves in to the neighborhood, he is forced to take stock of his life during fairly innocuous conversations with her. The catalyst to his eventual disillusionment is an old lady who chooses to burn herself with her books rather than leaving them.

The book points to some interesting trends that led to the banning of books. People wanting instant gratification and hence preferring TV to reading, the dumbing down of popular media to appeal to a larger market and removing offending books to appease minorities. All in the name of easing the everyone's mind.
Even though the dialogue can be a bit melodramatic at times this book is recommended for everyone with the hope that the events in the book don't turn out to be prophetic. Oh and if you are reading the 50th anniversary edition of the book then don't forget to read the coda section.