17 Followers
34 Following
Lalatina

Michelle CH

Currently reading

Death Comes for the Archbishop
Willa Cather
Progress: 200/297 pages
Possession
A.S. Byatt
Progress: 17/555 pages
Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally
Alisa Smith, J.B. MacKinnon
Progress: 45 %
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury I can't believe it has taken me this long to read this novel! Equally nice was reading it close to banned books week. A great way to celebrate the freedom to read.

The beginning felt very dreamy to me as Montag, a fireman of the future, meets Clarisse. She is his neighbor and talks about a time when there was community and a sharing of ideas. I kept thinking that Clarisse was a figment of Montag's imagination, as I couldn't imagine that she would have been allowed to exist for so long in their modern society. Her question to Montag as to whether he was happy was profound; how often do any of us ask that question?

In the future, Montag is a fireman who burns books, not for their physical properties but because of the ideas they carry within. Bradbury was brilliant in predicting some of the sameness that we depend on for comfort and the way that television and social media have disconnected our relationships while bringing us *closer*. Not counting Goodreads of course! Riding on a subway this past weekend, I thought about how good we have all become at ignoring everything and everyone around us, even the absurd or disturbing. This disconnectedness can be worrisome.

Once Montag's mind is opened to this question, his life and belief system changes rapidly. His path to his own understanding meets with the past in Faber ( a former professor) and in the future with Granger (the leader of book memorizing exiles).

Overall a great book and a future re-read.