While traveling to visit family today, I was excited to hear Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 being read by the author on XM's Book Radio channel. What a timeless classic!Bradbury has said that the novel's theme is not one of censorship as it has been frequently interpreted to be. Rather he has stated that the book explored the effects of television and mass media on the reading of literature. I am frequently quite critical of television especially the propaganda spewed by the mass media. Several years ago I pretty much gave up on television. With so little time and so many great books to read, the garbage on television just doesn't really justify my time. There are exceptions, most notably LOST, which in my opinion may be one of the best shows ever created. By the way, there are numerous book references in LOST and yes, you guessed it, a copy of Fahrenheit 451 is shown on a bookshelf in Season 5, Episode 12, Dead is Dead.
I learned that when the book was first published in 1953, in addition to a standard hardcover printing of 4,500 copies, there were just over 200 copies that were signed and numbered and then bound in "Johns-Manville Quinterra", a fire resistant asbestos material. How cool is that?!? And how much would a copy of that edition go for today?
No comments:
Post a Comment