It was a pleasure to burn.

Thanks to the Decades ‘09 challenge and Carl V’s Science Fiction Experience, I this week read one of those books that can be defined as a ‘classic’.

I thinks most people know the basic plot of this book, so I’m going to be lazy and quote from the blurb:

Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires…

The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning…along with the houses in which they were hidden.

Guy Montag enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs nor the joy of watching pages consumed by flames…never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid.

Then he met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think…and Guy Montag suddenly realized what he had to do!

What’s most frightening about this book, is that whilst reading it, you can easily visualise the series of baby-steps it would take for the nightmarish dystopian future Bradbury portrays in this book to come true.

Of course this, is mostly due to the quality of Bradbury’s writing, to make the improbable look possible. As with All Summer in One Day, the short story I read last week, the book also contains some fantastic descriptions, that helps really make the story as fascinating thing to read, as it is frightening.

Some of the things he predicted 50 years ago, are surprisingly accurate: massive televisions that dominate the living room; ‘reality’ style television programmes, and ‘seashell’ listening devices, that cut you off from the rest of the world, are just a few of the things that you will recognise from modern living.

A very enjoyable, and thought provoking read.

If they give you ruled paper, write the other way. —Juan Ramón Jiménez

[rating:75/100]

Other Reviews:

• You Can Never Have too Many Books
• Rhinoa’s Ramblings
• 3M
• Things Mean a Lot
• The Zen Leaf