FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury was first seen in the issues of Galaxy Science Fiction under the title "The Firemen." My copy is from Del Ray books of the Random House Publishing Company. Its was republished several times my copy is from 1996.
I had a powerful reaction to this book for several reasons: The first being my house would be burned because of the treasure trove of books I have on my shelves, second the burning of books just makes my skin crawl, and third is because we have come to a time when people do not like to read as much and would prefer a story on the big screen instead of reading the story.
It is kind of eerie that this story was written in the 1950's originally, because it describes some things that are happening now, big screen TV's that take up a whole wall and commercials that make you believe that you just have to have this item or be incomplete. We do not have spider dogs, thankfully, but we do have the capability to spy on the actions of people. Camera's line the intersections of streets and of course we have the ability to see what others are watching on there computers. Not so far off the mark from this story.
I was at a writer's conference and was told there are two types of writers, ones who want to see their name in print and do not care what they write and those who want to write the best story they can no matter how long it takes. Maybe this is the sentiment of Mr. Bradbury when he wrote this book, so many just write with no substance that people lose interest. I do not know, all I know is that I had a visceral response to this book, I wanted to display the books for all the world to see. Would I burn with my books? No. Life is more important because that is how you are able to write. Enjoyed the reading of this book and liked the writer's comments at the end, especially how if he was inclined to do so he would have changed the book.
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