The Collaborators, 2nd Edition

Before I get started on this "pre-review" I'd like to share an idea that Alaina briefly joked about during our first Collaboration and I decided to run with it, creating this "logo": (the final image will come fairly soon from a good college friend of mine who is an amazing artist)

We are indeed back again so soon! Alaina (That's What She Read) and I just couldn't resist coming together to read a book in honor of Banned Books Week. Yes, we are both well aware this week has long since passed but hey, we have lives outside of reading (unfortunately) and so better late than never I say!!

We did bounce around a few ideas for what our Banned Book should be. Of course, we prefer to stick to a book we both own (this makes not having to buy ANOTHER book easier on both of us) and we both haven't read. My memory might be a bit fuzzy here (and Alaina please correct me if I'm wrong) but some of the books we toyed with reading together were: Catch 22, Catcher in the Rye, and even Dracula came up!

In the end I wanted to stay away from Catcher in the Rye since I remember barely getting through the first few pages more than a decade and a half ago! I think I may have thrown Catch-22 in there but in fact we didn't initially have that on our minds at the time of picking a book. We both knew we wanted a classic (ie old) book rather than a current one. I was instantly cool with that idea because nowadays ANYTHING that's published can end up on a banned list by some school in some state for no real good reason. But don't get me started on that!

Anyway, what did we go with? Glad you asked. Drum roll please...

I think this is a great choice to read for banned books week and not just because it's short and sweet coming in at under 300 pages! But it also echoes Animal Farm, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Agenda 21, and even The Handmaid's Tale, all wrapped up in a nice new package of a crazy and extremely overreaching government. Of course we all know what happens in these sort of books could and would NEVER happen, but sometimes you've gotta wonder... And might I add that I have read all of those. I've included links to my reviews except Animal Farm & 1984 which I read in my junior high school days.

So, yeah, this book has been on the banned books list in many schools throughout this great (and might I remind us all, FREE) nation because of it's highly conspiratorial views that government, when given too much power, can in fact be a not so good thing. Wouldn't want to wrongly influence the minds of the young and impressionable high school students right? I mean, I know at that age I couldn't think for myself yet nor could I make up my own mind about what's right and what's wrong! Let me stop before my mind explodes!

As I write this I am less than 100 pages away from finishing the book but this is a "pre-review" before my actual thoughts and opinions. And trust me when I tell you it will be very hard for me to remain objective and simply talk about the style of writing and storytelling as opposed to going into depth about the subject matter and idiotic reasoning behind banning this book or any other book just like it. To put it as mildly and as frankly as I possibly can, I'm insulted, and so should ever parent of any school institution or library that would ban this book who would doubt my child (or my) intelligence and ability to read this kind of book and not get "the wrong idea" about government and its usefulness or lack thereof.

Okay, rant over...for now...

What did you read for Banned Books week? If you didn't during the actual week as both Alaina and myself haven't either, what book have you read because you heard it was banned? Or perhaps a book you've read and later found out we added to the Banned Books list for whatever reason?

Do you think the idea of "Banned Books" is a good or bad one? Why?

To follow along with us on Twitter search for #TheCollaborators or simply follow us!

Alaina - @WillBeFunOrElse

Erica - @NYCBookWorm84

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Book Review)

Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury

179 pages
Ballantine Books, 1953
dystopian novel
Finished in 1 day
Another Review...

My Rating: ★★★★

Amazon.com / BN.com

"It was a pleasure to burn."

Review: I'm almost ashamed to say this was my first time reading this book. I say almost because I'm glad I'm reading it an age where I feel I'm truly able to understand it and appreciate the message Ray Bradbury, I think, was trying to convey. I'm also amazed it was written in 1953 because so much of what he warns against is parallel to what is happening in our freedom loving society today.

I wanted to quote this book but found I wanted to quote every word. But there are some amazing  moments in the book that I feel attention must be paid to. Now, if you're like me and have never read this book let me tell you briefly what it's about. This takes place, surprisingly, around the time of the 2020's. Not too far into the future today, but in the 1950's I can see how it would work. This book is told from the point of view of a fireman whose occupation it is to start fires, not put them out. Montag doesn't just start fires any where he pleases. His job is to burn any and all books, including the house where those books are discovered. Why the firemen go from starting them instead of putting them out I'll leave for you to discover on your own.

Don't worry, the book is only about 170 pages and if all you seek is the answer to some basic questions, you will find them in the first part of the book . What I found most profound was when Captain Beatty (Montag's boss) explained to Montag why it is they do what they do. In a matter of what was probably a ten minute conversation he explains history and why the world changed as rapidly as it did. The Captain feels compelled to share this history with Montag because he's concerned that he might quit due to what took place the night before, causing Montag to question things more than just his job.

I would probably go insane, like most people did in this story, if I couldn't read books anymore. I'd hoard them best I could and be a recluse in my house with the windows always closed and covered, inviting no one inside, fearing they'd smell the mounds of books I had hidden throughout my house. There's something about the feel, smell, and togetherness of a book I could never part with nor do I ever get from the new technology of e-readers.

I hope I have peeked your interest a little bit to seek out and read this book? I tried not to reveal any spoilers. I hope I did that some justice. And because I felt a few quotes NEEDED to be put in my review, below is one to wet you whistle and I'm SURE will make you want to read and learn more...

“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”

Summary: Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future.

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.

When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

First published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is a classic novel set in the future when books forbidden by a totalitarian regime are burned. The hero, a book burner, suddenly discovers that books are flesh and blood ideas that cry out silently when put to the torch.

To learn more about Ray Bradbury visit his website.