Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

My mind brings up a line from the poem i read last night 'the rain set in early tonight..' thats how the weather feels now, only its not night yet, at half three the grass is too bright against the dull grey sky, with a line of brown for a hedge, somewhere past the crest of the hill. It reminds me of some painting where the colours havent been blended properly, or muted down enough to seem real. I can hear the rain pooring on to the paving flags surrounding the house, can imagine it splashing off leaves in big, fat, continuous drops. From where im sitting i cant see the golden leaves of the autumn oak, which always looks too warm and comforting at this time of year, when the rest of the world has turned dull and drear, and the long wait for spring's flowers -heralded by the delicate snowdrop- begins.

Strange things to be thinking after finishing this book, but what first sprang to mind after the end of a story thats been described as 'hauntingly prophetic' is that i can't imagine it coming true. Dimly i am aware of rumours of people who spend their hours in front of the t.v. screen, unaware of the world around them, but maybe because my world is so apart from that, i'm in denial of it ever being true and can't really believe that the warning this book gives is likely to have any real effect.

But then it is only a book, and dystopias are strange in their fortelling-of-horror ways.

Fahrenheit 451 has been lurking on the edges of my life for some time, waiting to be picked up and read, i think i've only managed it now because before i was unable to see past the strangeness in the way it is written, particularly at the start. But it is definitely past working through this strangeness, as the story beneath is quite fascinating. A world where people have t.v. 'parlours' with giant screens for each wall. A place where they are able to shout nothingness to their 'family' and live without taking any time to stop and think for themselves, just absorb what is fed them in multi-dimentional, 3D, Hight Definition, Surround Sound. A world, set some un-specified time in the future where wars can take place but people take no notice of them. Where millions of books are banned and the posession of them brings firefighters to your door, to burn your house down with gushing streams of kerosene.

The sky outside has now turned a murky blue, cerulean mixed with a touch of lamp black, the grass slope leading up to it is bright sap green, with dashes of veridian slased across it. The hedge at the top is a dark burnt umber, the trees behind seem to be uniform splodges of burnt sienna. Two poplars reach up into the blue, high above the squater oaks. Every now and then i see the flash of headlamps through the hedge, the only sign of the road hidden behind it.

In this world people turn away from books and education, not by force but of their own violation, and i guess that is the shocking thing. It is only later when governments see the use in having people who don't question them, and decide to force out those who still cling to the old traditions. People seen walking slowly are thought to be crazy, and driving below 55mph is illegal. Billboards are stretched out, because people go so fast they're unable to see the old ones. Even the bible is baned and 'christ' has been made up on the screens to sell cleaning products to the eager viewers at home.

I don't know where this review is going :P

Guy Montag is a fireman, and this story follows his transformation from unquestioning follower, to someone who wakes up to the madness around him. The whole book seems to flow in a daze, like someone who is too tired to fix on things, but lets them flow around him without clear focus. Yet this doesnt mean that its filled with waffle, the books is short and the dull sense of it is clean and powerful to read. I found the speeches other characters gave to Guy particularly interesting, two of them i'll type below.


"Do you know why books such as these are important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You'd find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion. The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details per square inch, you can get on a sheet of paper, the more 'literary' you are. Thats my definition anyway. Telling detail. Fresh detail. The good writers touch life often, the mediocre ones run a hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies' Pt. 2, p.83. Faber talknig to Montag about the bible.

Granger -> Montag, p.15o, part III
"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away."

This strange little book will make you think, and doesnt seem to have as much fame as one would think. I guess whether your into this type of thing or not its worth reading it, and while it makes you think it isn't challenging or too high and mighty for mere mortals to read. Even though i've probably missed a few of the higher themes. Although not likely to ever really happen, it is quite disturbing ;P

- poetry in first paragraph from porphyria's lover, by Browning.

100 + challenge,,, desperate cheating time :P

The idea of this challenge was to read 100 books in 2009, at the moment i have 24 left to read and only 51 days, which is like 3 1/4 books per week. With my studies (and 2 re-takes to study for over the xmas holidays) i have come to the decision that my only hope of succeeding with this challenge is through cheating :P

How am i going to do this? Read children's books.

My mum asked me earlier to sort though a load of old kiddie books to work out which ones i was happy to get rid of, which at first i decided to check for the A-Z Challenge, before realising i had challenge gold dust before me (unfortunately none of them really had the letters i was looking for - I've got to the tricky point where its mostly X's and Y's left) I've also found charlie and the chocolate factory, which is on my reading project, so BONUS!

I know this isnt really completing the challenge properly but a books is a book is a book, and it'll be fun if nothing else, besides, i have some lovely ones like dodger and fungus the bogey man, so i dont think i'm missing out really.

Despite this i am still going to try my hardest to get through the 100, this is hopefully just edging me a bit closer, then maybe next year i'll be able to do it properly :P

Hope nobody minds too much - would you think its amoral or not?

i'm getting kindof guilty now :P

The Classics Challenge - Wrap up

I joined this challenge because some time ago, after having kept lists of read books for a while, i noticed that allthough i read quite a lot, none of it seemed like the type of thing i'd reccomend to a friend, or be proud of having read (though all enjoyable). It started with me finally getting back to reading gone with the wind (which id read the first 200-300pages of when i was in year eight - about 12-13yrs old- but stopped part way through) i picked it up again during the easter hols and was suprised by how much i enjoyed it, and it was this that led me to search the net for more classic ideas, and i think thats how i came upon the whole blogging thing.

Persuasion followed, a bit of a drag, but still fun. After this (and as part of the once upon a time challenge)i read a midsummer night's dream - my first shakespeare! and it was fantastic! The language had the lovely poetry-ish feel that made it perfect for unwinding before bed.
After this i lost momentum for a while, and went on binges of my usual easy reading, before finishing pride and predudice, a handmaid's tale and animal farm in quick sucession. Pride and predudice and a handmaid's tale were both read during my frees at college, and as some friends were reading the latter for their english lit course we were able to have discussions about it. Animal farm was read whilst waiting for my mum in the library one afternoon when i'd walked into town.

My last book, To kill a mockingbird, has probably been one of my favourites, also read in college, (with a louise rennison series at home, and nightly doses of emma before bed) i had loads of people telling me how amazing it is. After taking a while to get into it - it tends to be distracting reading in college - i really started to enjoy the story, although unfortunately i've not finished it yet (Busy half term spent gutting my room, followed by a weekend at st.deniol's library) i hope to soon.

So despite not finishing the challenge, i feel i have done enough to have achieved something personally. Six classics to some people may not mean much at all, but to me, who has never been able to stick at anything respectable, its meant a lot. I feel better about myself, and have the added bonus of being able to talk about books that other people might actually have read ;P But not only this, I now have the confidence to try more books of a similar genre, and not pass them by with the assumption that i'd never read it, never get into it, or just abandon it after the first chapter.

If i'm still on the blog, i will definitely have another go at this challenge next year :D
Thankyou very much for hosting such a worthwhile and entertaining challenge :)

To Read this Year

Its mid-october, i think i have about 75 days left to finish this (my first) years challenges (with the exception of the classics challenge and R.I.P. which both finish october 31st).

My main aim is to get the last 29 books of 100+ challenge, although its unlikely i'll manage (college takes time away from reading :'( ) I'm also doubtful that i'll manage either of the A-Z, as i'm struggling with those last few X, Y, U letters, but we shall see.

Heres a list of some books i still hope to read this year:

• '...then he ate my boy entrancers.' - Louise Rennison
  
• '...startled by his furry shorts!' - Louise Rennison
• 'Luuurve is a many trousered thing...' - Louise Rennison
• To kill a mockingbird - Harper Lee
• Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carrol
• Sunshine - Robin McKinley
• Dead as a Doornail - Charlain Harris
• The Two Towers - Tolkein
• Breaking Dawn - Stephene Meyer
• Dead until Dark - Charlain Harris
• Emma - Jane Austen
• 'Stop in the name of pants!' - Louise Rennison
• The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy - Douglas Adams
• Are these my basoomas i see before me? - Louise Rennison
• Magic Bites - Ilona Andrews
• The Hero Strikes Back - Moira J. Moore
• Love Struck - Rachael Wing
  

Bold = Read since started list

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Attwood

The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel set in a totalitarian society, where infertility is becoming a serious problem due to radiation and other problems so people are taking drastic measures to get children. It is set in Gilead -which 'was' the united states, with the government overthrown- and the narrator reveals a world where everyone is placed in positions/roles and any slight deviation from their set character can result in punishments or hanging.

The narrator is a woman, one of these 'handmaids' which are some of the few fertile woman, who are expected to give their bodies up to act as surrogate mothers to the wealthier 'commanders' etc who can't conceive themselves. The narrator lets us into her world, showing snippets of her characters past woven in with its present (as she narrates it), and the world she portrays is kind of frightening; women have lost virtually all rights, the right to vote, own property, own money... they are dressed in colours matched to their position and are supposed to act as vessels, wives or maids depending on their position in this society. The book is described as feminist, but this didn't get in the way of my enjoyment of it, instead made the story more interesting, and the world it created worrying.

I found the handmaid's tale enjoyable and accessible, easy and clear to read, yet gripping and intelligent at the same time (although i didn't like the end!!) and it didnt put me off in the same way most modern classics do (theres something so depressing and cold about them), so if anyone else is taking their first dip into this kind of genre, The Handmaid's Tale is a good place to start. Other people i've spoken to who've read it have split opinions, all admit its written strangely (i think in a good way) but either think like it or hate it. But i'd definitely say its worth the read!!

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

If i'm honest there's not really much to write about this, its a classic. I was working it out earlier that Miss. Austen started writing this around 216yrs ago (unless my maths is faulty) and yet people today can still relate to it, and the characters within. As many people have said its sort of the original chic-lit romance, with so many other stories based upon it.

I started this some time ago, yet never managed to get round to finishing it until today where i sat down and gobbled up the last 100 pages.

Character wise I liked Lizzy, although she was almost too outspoken at times, but one of the brilliant things is the way the characters faults are shown up, making them seem much more human and real to the reader. Darcy was ofc amazing, yet there was fun to be had with mr.collins, lydia bennet, and mrs.bennet also. The annoying characters are so fantastic i cant help feeling affection towardst them. Overall a good read (ofc), personally i'd reccommend getting a copy with well spaced non-bold lettering if possible, particularly if you're a bit slow on the classics like me, as when i changed copies i found this so much easier, it really saves peering and getting lost between lines. (my second one was the everyman's 'the millennium library' one, although this may be out of print.)

Touch the Dark - Karen Chance

I've recently re-read this series and am still loving it :) Thought i'd tinker my amazon review for here, as it seems wrong not to post one for a book i like so much :)

Cassie has just spent the last several years on the run from her former master, vampire crime boss Tony. At the start of the book her motivations revolve around trying to either avoid being found by him, or getting revenge. However, as the story progresses she becomes ensnared in a mess thats much more dangerous.
Touch the dark focuses a lot on the vampires, and i really like the way Karen Chance brings back people from history and hangs them into this story like choice ornaments on the christmas tree. For the most part we are not told exactly who they are, but you get hints. For example, we meet cleopatra; "it wasn't an asp that bit her, mia stella", dracula's brothers, and one who i think is marie antoinnette. There are others also. (Raphael, Rasputin...)

Characterisation is something that Chance does well, my favourite is of course pritkin, who really comes into his own in the later books :D he is described as a sort of rambo meets mad scientist and jumps out of the page at you.

Some reviewers have said they've found the plot a little confusing, but i enjoyed the twists, however, as this was my third reading i may have got used to it :P if you do find it a bit of a boggle keep going because its worth it and you will be left craving more and counting the months till the next release. Chance deals not just with one problem or storyline but holds several at once, which may confuse some people, but overall i think it makes things more interesting. Its not just problem.resove.problem.resolve. like many others. This may be an advantage or disadvantage according to tastes but i believe it to be a strong point, as while waiting for book 5 to come along i can't wait to find out which problems she tackles and how, and see how the relationships between different characters and factions develop. I am well and truly hooked. so far nothing else i've read of this genre has compared.

I've read a few people saying that they've picked this up because amazon recomended it as something to read after twilight. If it helps they are completely different, as another reviewer pointed out the only thing really in common is the vampires. Twilight is all gushing romance and sweetness, everlasting love etc. This series is more action filled and isn't meant as a teen book (although i read when was 16, so its fine if thats what you're into). If you've read twilight and are looking for more of the same id recomend checking out listmania rather than amazon's own recomendations, as its written by people with the same dilema. But that doesnt mean you won't enjoy these, they're just different and its probably good to realise that before you buy expecting more of the same. I've read both and enjoy these a lot more.

And for those who arent a fan of Mircea, the main love interest in this book, due to the slighly creepy childhood crush cassie had on him where he took on a fathery/uncle type role, he meets some competition in the later books, so don't dispair as its not all over yet :P

Hope this might be some help. I'd say its definitely worth reading and that the later books are even better. :)