Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Wow. Want a book to really make you think and possibly start worrying about our future, then this is the book to read.  Another one of those books from the classroom that Blake wanted me to read with him.  What really makes this book believable is that Ray Bradbury wrote this in the early 1950's and much of what he thought and predicted can be seen today.  That's over 60 years later.  The book is divided into three sections instead of chapters so there is no stopping points or segment breaks which is nice to just keep your thoughts on the one idea instead of many subjects.

So the first section you are introduced to Montag and the life he lives as a fireman.  However, being a fireman means that you burn books and houses that held books.  Anyone found with one is arrested.  No one really remembers the past and what it was really like and they do not care.  No one really knows eachother or interacts with one another.  The world is in chaos and no one cares.  After seeing a woman burn herself alive with her books, Montag starts to really question his life.  He doesn't know his wife, nor does he seem to care about her anymore.  She has been sucked into the life of imediate gratification and entertainment.  Her 'family' consists of 3 tv walls that she even says makes her laugh and she makes them laugh.  It's who she only cares about.  Even going to bed she puts in headphones to keep in contact with everyone.  Intellegence and individual thoughts are crushed.

What makes it scary is that you can see this happening today.  Everyone comes home from school/work and is glued to an electronic device.  Even today, the power went out for an hour and I kept finding myself being drawn to the computer since I wanted to check emails and facebook, which I had already checked a couple times today.  I didn't know what to do at first without any connection to the world.  A sad, but true commercial I saw of a teenager saying her parents have no friends while she has 350 on facebook sums it up pretty good as well.  Are these really your friends?

Another part of this book talks about how minority groups caused the main reason for the start of burning books.  Groups kept getting offended of what each book talked about.  Not just racial groups, but religious, intellectual, etc...  Any group of people with similarities started saying everything was unfair for them since the majority did not comply.  The fire chief put it pretty clear when he said that their job is to make the minority population happy no matter what.  Do we not see this happening today?

We learn that it is not necessarily books that make all the difference.  There are three things everyone needs.  1. Quality Information, 2. Leisure to digest it, and 3. The right to carry out actions based on what you learn from the interaction of the first two.  Society in this book are missing these and struggling to survive.  People kill each other with no thought and commit suicide.  It is accepted an part of life.  One lady mentions she will never have children since it limits her fun while another says she puts her kids in schhol for ten days and the 3 days in the month they are home she puts them in front of the tv.  It is all about the individual.

To see what happens to Montag in this environment pick up this book and read it.  It has been a while since I have read a book that really makes me think and analyze life.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Blake has a ton of classroom books in his room so I decided to go through them and read some of the ones I have never read.  Blake started to read this book and insisted that I needed to read it with him.  Needless to say, I got hooked  and finished before he did.  This was a great book and the story just pulls you in.  I just looked up on amazon and noticed there are a good 5 books in this series so we will definately have to keep reading them.

Ender is 5 years old when the book starts. You have to keep reminding yourself that most of the characters in this book are between 5-12 years old and being breed and trained to save the world.  Earth was attacked by Buggers (bug-like aliens) and nearly destroyed before the military, by pure luck, stopped them from invading the earth.  Now they have decided to attack the Buggers and get rid of them for good.  The world is only allowed to have children if granted by the government and even them only 2.  Each child when they has a monitor attached to their neck to see if they are gifted enough to go to Battle School.  Ender is a Third in his family.  This is not highly thought of and often the kids are bullied since they were only breed since their older siblings did not pan out and therefore the Third was breed with the intentions of them being great.  From the start, the military has pegged Ender as the commander to lead the Bugger invasion and therefore isolate him and rigorously train him beyond any student.  He is pushed to the limits and eventually makes it to Eros, the command center.  He is only 11 at this time which is unheard of since most go when they are 16.  Ender and his group of toon leaders train with mock battles in order to prepare for the actual Bugger battle.

I won't say much more since I don't want to ruin the ending of the book, but it is crazy how smart these kids are and what they are capable of doing.  It is also sad to see that they have no childhood.  Yes, it was for the good of the earth, but at what cost?  What has the government done to their economy and the people in it?  A must read for sure.