Skip to Main ContentFahrenheit 451 is one of the first science fiction dystopian novels and it has maintained its relevance since it was written 70 years ago. It's beautifully written but also suspenseful, atmospheric, and concise. It's a quick read but there is so much to talk about and I think the themes of media and surveillance and censorship will make a pretty interesting conversation given our current situation.
Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.
Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television 'family'. But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people did not live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television. When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. - Goodreads
Audrey Douglas, Library Leader
This is Audrey's first summer read recommendation!