Book review - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Hello there readers, I am back with another book review. I know it's been a while but if you have me as a friend on Goodreads you may or may not have seen that I was reading a couple of historical fictions. Now I have nothing against people who enjoy historical fiction, some of my best friends like historical fiction, but I can't stand it so trekking through these books for History was a long, treacherous journey that I wish not to repeat. Once I finished those books though, I moved onto the one I am reviewing - Fahrenheit 451. This book is considered a classic by most literature nerds (of which I am one), so I knew that one day I would have to read it, but what really gave me the motivation to read it now was my Philosophy teacher who I have mentioned in countless posts now but he recommends books and films and whatnot and he recommended the film of this, and I like to try and read the book before reading the film generally so I decided to read it. Plus my parents have recommended it several times before, so the time was right.

I'd also like to point out that with this book, I completed my 2014 reading challenge which was to read 15 books, this may not sound like a lot but I really became unmotivated with reading last year so I'm quite proud of myself for doing it and completing it more than 2 months ahead!

Borrowing my parents books always means receiving a very old, battered book which for aesthetic reasons is  quite nice but makes it quite hard to scan into goodreads.. mostly because you need a barcode and there are no barcodes on the old books.

Synopsis:

Guy Montag is a fireman in a dystopian future where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy books along with the houses in which they are hidden, because they are the most illegal commodity.

Montag never questions this lifestyle, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family." But then he meets an eccentric seventeen year old, Clarisse, who asks him thought provoking questions and tells him stories of the past - back in the day when firemen used to put out fires rather than start them. Clarisse causes him to question his entire lifestyle, and the story continues on from there.

My thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book. It was so easy to get into, and it wasn't written in a complicated way at all. My only criticisms are that it was split into three parts rather than chapters so it made it a little harder to decide when to stop reading, but it's a very short book regardless so I didn't have too much trouble with that. I was so gripped in the third part, so much so that I couldn't put it down which was nice because I haven't read a book like that in a long time. I also enjoyed the philosophical themes in it - this could be because I am a generic pretentious Philosophy student, I like reading and watching things that make me think. I really want to watch the film now!!

Overall rating:

I gave this a 5/5 on Goodreads - yep that's right, you read that correctly. I hardly ever rate books a 5/5 (with the exception of Harry Potter) but I can't point out any faults with this book really.

Have you read Fahrenheit 451?