Hello Daily Mayo readers. Today is the first day of Banned Books Week. You can celebrate your right to free reading by reading a banned book, or by recording yourself reading a book and posting it to the Banned Books YouTube page. If you do record yourself reading a book, don’t forget to post the link to the Daily Mayo Facebook page! You could also watch a movie based on a banned book.
Today’s review is Fahrenheit 451
This is probably one of the more ironic banned books that has ever existed.
Fahrenheit 451 is a story about a man who professionally burns books. The 451 temperature is supposedly the temperature at which paper burns (which I think is false, but I don’t remember). It is illegal for people to read any books that are not on government approved reading lists, which pretty much exclude all poetry, the Bible, fantasy, and so on. As the book progresses, the main character starts to question the reasoning behind banning the books and he starts secretly reading some of the books. Eventually, he realizes that censorship of reading material is wrong, and I think he runs away with a bunch of other people that feel the same and they realize that as long as they remember selections from the books they have read, the books are not lost forever.
I have always really liked this book. It does seem a little confusing at times, but for the most part, the story is enjoyable. It’s shorter than most books, much like many other of Ray Bradbury’s stories. All in all, I think this is one of my favorite stories of all time. I’m surprised there aren’t more movies based on this story, actually. It seems like a topic that would make a good movie.
In 1998, a school in Mississippi banned the book due to too much swearing. I believe after some discussion, the book was allowed back into the school, but not listed under required reading. Other places have banned this book as well.
What are your favorite banned books?
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[…] the Sci-Fi section first, and grab everything by the classic sci-fi authors, like Orson Scott Card, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asmov, and so on. I might grab a few authors I haven’t read, because, hey, free […]