Literally Geeky discussion

Any thoughts, comments or deep and meaningful philosophical points, here's the place for them.

Just finished this and I'm not sure how I feel about it. My favourite part of it all was the sort of ending section where the Hound was involved, but other than that I just felt very annoyed with all the characters, especially Guy's wife and her friends. I really felt like it was just kicking off at the end and I sort of wanted to know what happened after the end of the book and also what happened to Clarisse. I guess I just don't like loose ends!

Despite this being my pick, I haven't started it yet. I think it's short length is working against it as I know I've got time.

Oddly enough I've read some other Bradbury in the mean time - in this case a few of his short stories from 'The Stories of Ray Bradbury'. I am charmed and smitten, especially by the monster tales. It's no coincidence that Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen became friends.

Same here. I've been putting it off until closer to the hangout so it'll be fresh in my mind. It's a fairly short book in a month with five Mondays.

I've been using the "extra" reading time to try and put a dent into the 1000+ pages known as A Dance With Dragons.

If your edition of this book has the author's afterword, read it. Some interesting comments on censorship.

I agree with you, Kim. The lack of enjoyable characters was a major drawback for me. The only one I found interesting was Beatty, and he was the villain. Granted, every story should have an interesting villain, but there should be an equally interesting protagonist to counter-balance them. Guy just didn't do that for me.

During the discussion, I brought up the part of the book I disagreed with the most - using the Bible to promote individual thought.

Today I thought of a comparison between the Bible and the very institution which Guy is attempting to rebel against. In Fahrenheit 451, books are symbols of free-thinking and are disposed of with flame in order to keep the masses in line. The Bible has an eerily similar message, as those who do not follow or believe in its teachings can expect an eternity of fire and brimstone in the afterlife.

To me, by bringing the Bible to Faber in the hopes of reprinting it and inspiring individual thought, Guy was simply replacing one version of suppression with another.

As I also stated last night, I'm not attempting to insult or challenge anyone who is religous. I'm merely using my personal opinions as a non-religous person to explain why I had a problem with that particular part of the book.