Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The nicest thing about re-reading a favorite book is that you are not in a hurry to find out what happens and can savor the beautiful passages. It was a great pleasure, therefore, to read Fahrenheit 451 after a 15 year break. I loved it the first time because, as a bibliophile, I could identify with the horrors of a world without books where everyone is numbed by mindless entertainment. 

This time around my satisfaction was doubled as I thought more deeply about each of the characters and their (often painful) journeys toward self-awareness. Guy Montag, an official book burner, is the central figure and the novel recounts his awakening from his cultural stupor and his road to redemption. 

Listening to the comments on the Literary Life podcast enhanced my reading even more as the hosts pointed out themes I would never have noticed such as the fairy tale motifs and Bradbury's nods to Dante. I'm glad I had them as "reading buddies" this second time through.

Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid to forget. There is nothing magical in them, at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us. (p. 79)

Blessings,