KRL Reads Fahrenheit 451

2008-04-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Big Read at KRL

We want to extend our sincere appreciation to everyone who attended events, submitted art work and/or essays, or contributed comments to this blog as part of The Big Read. The Big Read concluded at the end of February, so we won't be adding any new content, but feel free to browse this site and check out any of the links you see here or at the companion site featuring the interview with Brian Herbert. And keep reading!

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Join us for a discussion of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the impact of television and media on reading, censorship, and the free expression of ideas. Each week a new question will be posted on this blog. Scroll down to see this week's question. You can join the conversation by clicking on "COMMENTS" here.

Upcoming Events:

A discussion about "Civic Engagement"

Thursday, February 28th, 7pm. Location: Andante Coffee, 123 Bijune Drive, Bainbridge Island Join the Conversation Cafe group to discuss "Civic Engagement", in a lovely, relaxed, atmosphere.

Check back each week for new videoclips, artwork and more discussion. We're on Facebook, too. Be sure to look for us there as well!

The question for this week:

Now that we are entering the final week of "The Big Read: Fahrenheit 451" programs, discussions and events, is there anything else you want to say about literature, reading, or the failure to recognize the value of a "right" or "thing" until it is gone?

(If you don't want to sign-in with an email account, you can leave your comments by clicking on "Nickname" and typing in a nickname, or, by clicking on "Anonymous". Then just click on "Publish Your Comment" and we'll do the rest).

The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The Big Read in Kitsap County is also supported by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the Bainbridge Island Friends of the Library.

Winners of The Big Read: Fahrenheit 451 Essay Contest Announced

2008-02-25T21:00:00.000-08:00

Thirty (30) essays were submitted for consideration on our Big Read: Fahrenheit 451 Essay contest and the following were selected for special recognition:

7th - 9th grade:

1st place - Hanna Hupp, age 14 "What One Book" $100 Eagle Harbor Book Company Gift Certificate

2nd place - Maya Edwards, age 12 "The Beauty of a Book" $50 Eagle Harbor Book Company Gift Certificate

3rd place - Deni Murray, age 14 "The Last Hope" $25 Eagle Harbor Book Company Gift Certificate

Honorable Mentions:

Kay Sterner, age 12 "Remember"

Zoe Hyra, age 13 "If you could save one book in the world, what would it be?"

10th - 12th grade:

1st place - Leo Burmer, age 18 "1984" $100 Eagle harbor Book Company Gift Certificate

2nd place - Keenan Blackwood, age 16 "Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival" $50 Eagle Harbor Book Company Gift Certificate

3rd place - Katelyn Simon, age 17 "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" $25 Eagle Harbor Book Company Gift Certificate

2008-02-15T15:29:00.001-08:00

The questions for week three were:

Reading has been associated with achievement, both in school and at work - perhaps more fundamentally, with our capacity for critical analysis and our freedom to express ourselves.

Are we reading less?

What do we stand to lose if this is true?

2008-02-15T15:08:00.000-08:00

The question for week 2 was:
"Surfing the net. Watching TV. Joining a virtual game.

Reading a book.

Where do you find community?"

Tell us. We want to know!

2008-02-01T13:12:00.000-08:00

The question for week one was:

What Book Would You Save?

Tell us. What Do You Think?

About The Big Read - Fahrenheit 451

2008-02-01T13:10:00.000-08:00

The Bainbridge Branch of Kitsap Regional Library is one of 127 organizations nationwide to receive a National Endowment for the Arts grant to participate in The Big Read project. KRL will work with other community organizations to celebrate reading by focusing on one major work of American fiction, Ray Bradbury’s prophetic Fahrenheit 451, throughout the month of February.
The Big Read includes a number of community events, a cover art contest, essay submissions, readings, films and more.
(For additional information on The Big Read, please visit the Kitsap Regional Library website (http://www.krl.org/)

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment, with Pacific Northwest support from The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Local support for this program has been provided by the Friends of the Bainbridge Public Library.

Guidelines for Submitting Comments

2008-02-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

Kitsap Regional Library serves the community as a center for lifelong learning and a steward of access to stories, information and knowledge.

The Big Read - Fahrenheit 451 is about the expression of ideas and diverse points of view. At the same time, this is a public forum, and like any public place, there are a few rules - not many, and you probably know them already, but here they are:

Feel free to speak your mind, but please be respectful of others
Comments or questions unrelated to the Big Read will not be posted (but will be answered if possible!)
For your personal safety, any comments requesting or containing personal information will not be posted

When you submit a comment, it will be held for moderation before being posted, so they may not appear immediately after you submit them. We'll publish any comment, whatever its point of view, as long as it falls within these guidelines.

OK - it's all yours.....

Comments

2008-02-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

This is a compilation of all the comments that you have left. Go to Comments to see the original post and links to author profiles.

Anonymous said..

That question really opens up a can of worms! So many ways to go in answering this one. I must say that I really ended up missing my hair, once it was all gone! Never thought about it much while I had a full head of it! Also, I think some things I once saw as a "right" (like smoking in public) are better off thought of as a "privilege" best done where it doesn't interfere with someone else's health. Things change when perceptions change (and vice versa)!
February 25, 2008 4:38 PM

Anonymous said...

I have enjoyed following this blog and will miss it when it's gone! Perhaps it can be left up for a while, after The Big Read: Fahrenheit 451 is over?It was awesome to see that so many young people participated in the art and essay contests!

February 26, 2008 12:09 PM

"Are we reading less? What do we stand to lose if this is true?"

Likes2Laugh said...

I don't think we are reading less, but that the mediums that can be read are changing or different from what they were before the Internet. We are reading things all the time in print, on TV, on the Internet. We even "read" signs and wonders in nature and in each other that don't come in print. Reading is diversifying, not dying!

Charlie said...

I think this is brilliant. I submitted my paper from school to the Big Read contest, I want to read other people's thoughts on this book as well. February 20, 2008 9:20 AM

P said...

Yes we are reading fewer books, but commisseratly our consumption of news and opinion-based literature (usually through the internet) has been on the rise. The loss of some amount of fictional literature is more than compensated by the shift in focus to real stories of people and evens which pervade the internet. With the new ability of anyone to present their concepts and ideas to the global consciousness (usually through outlets such as Blogspot) our consciousness is actually expanding beyond the limiting scope of publishers and traditional news companies. February 20, 2008 9:22 AM

Anonymous said...

I agree that reading is diversifying, but I also know that todays youth don't read nearly as much as people have in the past. We live in/ outside of the nations most literate city, Seattle. Even we are noticing a decline in reading books. However I'm not exactly sure whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. It is just a change. February 20, 2008 9:26 AM Anonymous said...
We are reading less books, but i do not consider this to be all bad. unless the flow of information and free speech is tampered with a situation like in Fahrenheit 451 could never happen February 20, 2008 9:26 AM

Anonymous said...

i don't really know if reading in america is declining. it is a hard question for me to answer. living on bainbridge everyone reads. my sister is constintly reading book after book. Seattle is considered one of the nations most literate cities, so when asked this question i would have to disagree. i disagree partially due to the fact that i have not been exposed to other schools and communities in america. i know that in other parts of the us reading is not as strong. February 20, 2008 9:30 AM

Anonymous said...

This study stated that we are reading less books. This may be true. I know nothing about the reliability of the study, so I won't comment on it. However, if you actually read the book "Fahrenheit 451," you should realize that it isn't really the books that matter, but rather the ideas in them. Faber did say that the people could get the same thing from the "parlors," but the right things weren't being shown. As long as we are all being exposed to a variety of new ideas and are educated enough to decide for ourselves which one is right, then society is fine. February 20, 2008 9:30 AM

Anonymous said...

Although reading purely for pleasure is certainly less popular than it was a few decades ago, the aspects of reading which society needs I.E. education, the sharing of ideas, and any sort of political dissent are still brought to us by the internet. Despite the numerous pointless distractions on the internet there is quite a deal of wisdom and intelligent thought to be found. February 20, 2008 9:30 AM

Sugar bomb daddy said...

I believe that we are reading less, but I don’t think that that will necessarily become a problem. In general, I feel that many books are portrayed as more artistic and intellectual then films, when this is not necessarily the case. If reading declines, the population will simply get intellectual stimulation from some other medium. We will simply get dumber because we are reading less. February 20, 2008 9:31 AM

Anonymous said...

I don't necessarily think that we're reading less; it's just that we're drawing our reading material from different source. Is reading news online any different from reading the sunday paper? Is reading an email that different from reading a letter? With blogs, forums, and other online communities, sharing inforation is less of a hassle than ever--even if you don't necessarily want to read the information others share. And thanks to the wonders of illegal peer-to-peer file sharing, even the largest and heaviest tome can be transfered into a weightless format able to be stored conveniently on your computer. So no, I don't think it matters that much that we're reading more online than we are in books. Don't get me wrong--I'm an avid book-reader, with a huge collection of literature. If nothing else, it's much easier to curl up in bed with a nice book than it is with a laptop. But still, I see no real problem with using a screen rather than a musty book to do your reading. February 20, 2008 9:32 AM

Anonymous said...

personally i tink that poeple and mostly kids are reading much less then the generations before us. back then poeple didnt have much to entertain themselves so they read books, but now we have music TV computers and video games that keep us from reading books. February 20, 2008 9:34 AM

"Surfing the net. watching TV. Joining a virtual game. Reading a book. Where do you find community?"

Likes2Laugh said...

Incredible. The photo shows young people in community [sitting next to one another] but interfacing with technology, not each other. So, is community now just being in the same room, otherwise engaged?

February 9, 2008 2:25 PM

Anonymous said...

Finding community...
I feel closer to people I meet online than I do with people in my neighborhood or at work. I guess it's because we have something in common. If I talk about politics with someone online, everything is cool. If I talk about politics at work, some people decide I'm their new best enemy.

February 13, 2008 4:47 PM

bc said...

Re: the comment by anonymous -
people i meet from other parts of the world have a hard time figuring us out here in the U.S. For many of them, the most common topics of conversation - around the dinner table, over coffee or a glass of wine - are politics, religion and sex - things that are pretty central to most of our lives. Here, they are almost taboo in casual conversation for exactly the reason you mention.

It's OK here to talk about sexual exploits, but not intimacy; to identify our denomination, but not our beliefs, faith and passion; and by all means, keep our politics under wrap because they have become polarizing battle lines, not grounds for respectful and reasoned debate - increasingly so during the past 8 years.

As much as anything I long for in our culture, it is to re-discover the art of conversation, of dialogue, listening and appreciative inquiry.

Online spaces do help provide a place for dialogue - I hope we can try it face-to-face as well.

bc

P said...

A lot of what I've seen talked about with this whole "Big Read" is total BS.

Technology is not evil, the picture here is designed with a provocative statement trying to force people to believe that things were better in a simpler time, and somehow books and social interaction are inextricably linked.

Reading a book often restricts your interaction with someone else. If you spend your time buried in a book, all you do is absorb the message of the writer, without any discourse or sharing of ideas. You may have a conversation with someone else who has read the book, but often the ideas are not your own.

People can talk just as well about issues without books. How often do you get meaningful [political news from a book. News media might pretend to offer an unbiased view, but without opposing viewpoints, the message amounts to little more than propaganda. The Internet on the otherhand, offers as many different viewpoints as there are people, and anyone can post something somewhere about their thoughts of a topic.

Printed media has a purpose, but it should no longer be shoehorned into a role it is not suited for. The Internet offers more interactivity, and well as the knowledge which can be taken back into the real world and used there.

Bah, no time to finish the post, I'll be back later.

February 20, 2008 9:34 AM

What Book Would You Save?

Likes2Laugh said...

What book would I save? I've been thinking about this question all night long! If people were burning books and I could save only ONE, I think it would be a book of quotations like "Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts & Funny Sayings: A Stupendous Collection of Quotes, Quips, Epigrams, Witticisms, and Humorous Comments. For Personal Enjoyment and Ready Reference". There are other, more profound books worth saving, but I think I would need to be reminded of the intelligence, wit and wisdom of others, throughout history, during what would be a very dark time (book burning)? Book burning is NOT funny, so remembering "hope" through humor, wisdom, etc., would be most useful.

February 2, 2008 5:14 AM

kd said...

Great Blog! Truly a thing of beauty!

Book to save:
Collected Poems and plays of Rabindranath Tagore

Collected works of William Blake

Collected works of WB Yeats.

February 2, 2008 9:41 AM

Constance said...

How could I choose? If it's come down to where I could only save one book, we are in dire straits, and I would have to save whatever I could, hoping it was something wonderful. That said, I would want to save The Epic of Gilgamesh. It is our oldest surviving work of its kind, and I would save it to remind people that the urge to write down stories has been with humankind for millenia. The Epic of Gilgamesh is over four thousand years old, and it has already survived the burning of one library in 612 BCE. Think about how amazing that is.

February 2, 2008 12:26 PM

Goody said...

What book to save?? Would there be other books saved by other people, or would my book be the only one. If, like in Farenheit 451 there were other books, I would go for a childrens book, "Tootles the Taxi". Though possibly not the most intellectual book, it is important to me and I think it is important to have good children's books to encourage reading. I can still remember the rhyme for which the book was named, the one I read to my sister no more than half an hour after she was born.

I'm tootles the taxi,
I'll give you a ride,
Just put up your hand
And jump inside

Just watch the meter,
you'll see the fare.
Distance no object,
I go anywhere.

February 2, 2008 1:47 PM

A world famous printmaker said...

I would save Samuel Beckett's: The Unnameable. Both for its virtuostic poetry of despair and death and because we live in a society that looks askance at the suffering, absurdity, and futility of so many human lives.
I could choose any of Many of the nobel prize winning author's works, from poetry, plays, novels, or short stories.
Beckett, who had a blessed and priviledged childhood, and young~adult life, with the best schooling and athletics and a bourgoise life style, was asked why with such an apparently happy life, was his work so uncomprimisingly dark and despairing. And he replied: Just look out the window.

February 2, 2008 4:49 PM

prhoades said...

As Lifelong Reader,the book I would save would be ‘The secret garden’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The secret garden was a favorite of mine as a child and remains one to this day. I still remember the first time I read this wonderful book, I wanted more. This book was the spark that lead to my lifelong love of reading.

February 2, 2008 5:56 PM

books4all said...

I wouldn't accept the premise that only one book could be saved for the simple reason I don't think I could narrow down the choice or live with it if I could. I'd try to find a way to save a library for starters.

February 2, 2008 8:32 PM

Anonymous said...

i love the bannerhead - logo for the read red is the color of passion , paper fires like love relationships burn hot and fast the book i would save is " one fish ,two fish ,red fish blue fish" anything 'cat in the hat" love to read !!!!!!!!!! LOVE RAT IN A HAT

February 3, 2008 2:54 PM

Stacy said...

I'd probably try for the thickest Norton Lit. Anthology I can get my hands on, if I could only save one. But I'd be totally in for starting a conspiracy group to save a whole library.

February 3, 2008 7:06 PM

Likes2Laugh said...

I really like the idea of trying to save the whole library, not just one book!

February 3, 2008 7:31 PM

Karen J. said...

I would save the book that hasn't been written yet. They can destroy the physical book, but not take sway the thoughts that are left in our hearts and minds. I believe in encouraging the story telling, to "fire the imagination". No pun intended!!

February 4, 2008 9:38 AM

HannahGrams said...

Wow! I have been really impressed with the comments and selected books. I especially like the idea[s] of saving the oldest book, a couple of classic children's books, compilations, saving the library itself, or, perhaps, very importantly, saving the "thoughts/ideas" that produce books...the unwritten book. Really thought provoking responses. Keep 'em comin'!

Curious, a bit, to me, is that some of the religious texts ie. the Bible, Quran, Bhagavad Gita and many others have not been mentioned yet.

February 4, 2008 6:52'ish PM

kd said...

Hannahgrams: You mention wondering about the lack of mention of the great spiritual works. I chose visionary poets because of their density. Had difficulty narrowing it down but settled in the end for the Collected works of Rabindrinath Tagore specifically because he is a mystic and visionary. This Bengali Nobel laureate's works can be read on so many levels. They inspire, they provoke the unwritten masterpiece (as KarenJ mentioned) they comfort, they are sensual pieces feeding on all levels yet they are not limited or tied to any one doctrine narrowly. I would, of course have a great deal of difficulty leaving behind William Blake, WB Yeats and TS Eliot and would probably be scorched by the flames dithering trying to bundle all four of these great visionaries in my arms. Quite likely I would be burned along with all the works I was trying to save just because the decision would be tooooo hard and i would dally too close to the flames. As usual. Is that burning hair I smell???

February 4, 2008 7:46 PM

mikeybee said...

I really think that censorship is a ridiculous notion, first of all. What's the point of being allowed freedom of speech and freedom of thought, and yet having those very rights taken from us by an oppressing government, by people who simply don't agree with what is being written? If it's not something you approve of, then don't read it, quite simply. But don't keep knowledge and the wealth of free thought that books bring us, out of reach of others. That's oppression, plain and simple, and is not to be tolerated if we are indeed a 'free country'.

As for which book I would save.... that's an incredibly tough choice. I think that it wouldn't really matter which book we saved, because as a collective whole, everyone in the world has read every book ever written. And if we remember those books, we can pass them on the future generations. They won't be the same as before, true, but the art of oral storytelling always requires fabrications, which in turn leads to new stories being told. Stories live on inside us, not just in paper and ink.

However... if I really had to choose, I would save Neil Gaiman's 'Coraline' or 'Mirrormask'. Genius in all forms. :)

February 4, 2008 10:58 PM

Jonathan Evison said...

. . . as for what book i'd save, maybe don quixote, or david copperfield, or the brothers karamazov, or, or, or, or, . . . loving the big read, and lovin' this page-- very striking . . .

February 5, 2008 9:46 AM

shiver72876 said...

If I could truly only save one book I think I would find myself being selfish and save my favorite book of all time and not an anthology or philosophical work. Therefore I would save Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice. Wait! No, maybe it would be Austen's Persuasion! Wait! Ok, I would save a Complete Works of Jane Austen!

Tee hee!

By the way, love the look of the blog main page! It's quite powerful!

February 5, 2008 10:05 AM

James Othmer said...

Great site.Riffing on a previous comment, maybe I'd save John Gardener's "The Art of Fiction" on behalf of the books yet to be written. Though you couldn't go wrong with "The Collected William Shakespeare".
February 6, 2008 4:27 AM

bc said...

I've often wondered how much our world would be different today if the library of Alexandria wouldn't have burned. but, if I was one of those at the end of the 451, wandering the forest and reciting a book, the one i would become is "The Language of Life" - poetry through the eyes of poets - discussed with Bill Moyers. bc
February 6, 2008 8:58 AM

Likes2Laugh said...

Interesting notion, what would our world be like now if the library at Alexandria hadn't been burned?

I think we would be more evolved beings intellectually and spiritually for sure, and most likely our technology would be well beyond our current comprehension.

February 6, 2008 11:51 AM

meg said...

Somewhat in response to MikeyBee's questions about why a government might censor, I'd like to cherrypick a passage from If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino. For context, after many adventures, the narrator ends up in a government library of controlled books where he discusses reading with the head censorer. Books are arranged by categories:"the countries where all books are systematically confiscated; ... the countries where the censorship is subtle, informed, sensitive to implications and illusions, managed by sly and meticulous intellectuals; ... the countries where there is no censorship because there are no books, but there are many potential readers; the countries where there are no books and nobody complains about their absence; the countries, finally, in which every day books are produced for all tastes and ideas, amid general indifference.'Nobody these days holds the written word in such high esteem as police states do,' Arkadian Porphyrich says. .... 'Where it is the object of [censorship and repression], literature gains an extraordinary authority, inconceivable in countries where it is allowed to vegetate as an innocuous pastime, without risks.'"(It occurs to me that ellipses are somewhat ironic in a discussion of censorship ;) It's a long quote, but I included most of it because Calvino presents a couple of interesting ideas. Namely, that censorship can backfire - prompting rebellion as in those who memorize, hide, and preserve books in 451 and among us, who want to save not one book but whole libraries and the storytelling germ of narrative - and that a more frightening (and, perhaps, successful?) form of censorship is complacency.
February 7, 2008 9:23 AM

Yokel (TKS) said...

This book will likely be part of the discussion at the Tuesday Feb 19 Field's End Roundtable discussion headed by Paul Hanson of Eagle Harbor Books. His subject, "Speculative Fiction," should be of interest not only to writers but to readers and thinkers as well.

Fahrenheit 451 seems like the obvious choice to save, oddly. I just reread it and appreciated the way Bradbury so keenly captured not only our movement away from books and literature, but from critical thinking and freethinking as well. When I first read this book, I was in my late teens and a local activist against book burnings, so at that time, I was more focused on the physical act of censorship. But our culture does a fine job even now in self-censoring, and the pulling and banning of books from library shelves continues into the 21st century.

As a writing coach and editor, I often suggest writers read Fahrenheit 451 because it's a book about the shape of the future, if we don't do more to protect our current literary landscape AND our rights to think, speak and express ourselves freely. The book should be quite motivational for anyone who values any of these greater goods, as well as eye-opening for people who don't think free speech rights and censorship exist inside our political and cultural landscape.

Tamara Kaye Sellman
Writer's Rainbow Literary Services
www.writersrainbow.com
Bainbridge Island, WA

2008-02-01T11:00:00.000-08:00

Fahrenheit 451 Events:

(For more information on the Big Read or any of these events, please visit our website at http://www.krl.org/)

Sunday, February 3, 4:00pm. Location: Bainbridge Branch Library
An afternoon with Terry Brooks
Terry Brooks will talk about his new work including a graphic novel and The Elves of Cintra, which combines “Tolkien-infused magic with an urban, post-apocalyptic world.” He will also discuss the role of science fiction and fantasy in American literature and culture and his journey as a writer. For more information, click here to visit Terry Brooks at his website

Wednesday, February 6, 2:00 to 3:30pm. Location: Bainbridge Branch Library
Reader's Advisory - Capturing the Imagination with Science Fiction.
Our young adults have discovered speculative fiction and we should too. Martha Bayley will talk about the history of the genre, exciting trends and favorite titles. If you work with young people as an educator, counselor, librarian or parent, you will want to hear this program.
For a good article about what Speculative Fiction is, see the link below:

http://www.lostbooks.org/speculative-fiction.html

Wednesday, February 6, 6:00pm. Location: Bainbridge Island City Hall
Mayor Kordonowy launches The Big Read: “Fahrenheit 451.”
Join Mayor Kordonowy and City Council members in a salute to reading with the inauguration of The Big Read: “Fahrenheit 451” on Bainbridge Island.

Wednesday, February 6, 7:00 pm. Location: Bainbridge Branch Library
Bainbridge Island Book Group Reads "Fahrenheit 451."
Come join other engaged citizens to discuss, "Fahrenheit 451".

Saturday, February 9, 9:30am. Location: Bainbridge Island Branch Library
Talking to Our Enemies: Civic Engagement on a Global Scale.
The Great Decisions group on Bainbridge, sponsored by the Foreign Policy Association and the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council, will explore "Fahrenheit 451's" theme of civic engagement at an international level. Visit the website: Great Decisions Discussion Series

Tuesday, February 12, 7:00pm. Location: LGI, Bainbridge Island High School
Public Forum on the impact of TV and other media on American culture and reading habits.
Come listen to members of Bainbridge High School Debate Team present arguments and initiate a public discussion on this topic. Warning: Discretion advised as this discussion may challenge you to think, an inherently subversive activity.

Thursday, February 14, 1:00pm. Location: Bainbridge Island Branch Library
2nd Thursday Book Group Discussion.
Join the 2nd Thursday Book Group discussion about "Fahrenheit 451".

Saturday and Sunday, February 16 and 17, 7:30pm. Location: Bainbridge Island Branch Library
Island Theatre Play Reading. "The Fourth Wall" by A.R. Gurney.
Island Theatre presents a staged reading of A. R. Gurney’s play, “The Fourth Wall,” a sly comic commentary on art and politics, commerce and culture in honor of The Big Read.

Tuesday, February 19, 7:00pm. Location: Bainbridge Island Branch Library
Field's End Writers' Roundtable.
Paul Hanson, Manager of Eagle Harbor Book Co. will facilitate a discussion: "How necessary are truth and reality in Speculative Fiction?"

Wednesday, February 20, time 3:30pm. Location: Bainbridge Island Senior Community Center, Bainbridge Island
"Preserving books through treasured memories."
Dramatic readings of favorite poems and stories were once a part of every school day and many social gatherings. Come share your memories of the authors and writings you treasure.

Tuesday, February 26, 7:00pm. Location: The Historic Lynwood Theatre. Bainbridge Island
"Fahrenheit 451", an American classic.
Join members of the Bainbridge Science Fiction Book Club and Brooks Peck, curator for the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle, for a lively discussion following this special screening of the 1966 film version of Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451".

Thursday, February 28th, 7pm. Location: Andante Coffee, 123 Bijune Drive, Bainbridge Island

A discussion about "Civic Engagement"

Join the Conversation Cafe group to discuss "Civic Engagement", in a lovely, relaxed, atmosphere.

Suggestions for Additional Reading

2008-02-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

Fahrenheit 451 Readalikes:

If you liked Fahrenheit 451, here are some suggestions for addition reading, compiled by Kate Skinner, reference librarian at Kitsap Regional Library. The list is sorted by topical area, with specific suggestions for teens and young people at the end.

All of these books are available through Kitsap Regional Library. Pay us a visit - in person and online at http://www.krl.org/

Censorship:

Byatt, A.S. - Babel Tower
A rich, intense, multilayerd exploration of the notion of freedom in a new world order.

Dai, Sijie - Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Set during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the novel tells the story of two hapless city boys sent to a remote mountain village for reeducation. A beguiling fable that shines with the wonder of imagination, the beauty of romance, and the power of storytelling

Fforde, Jasper - The Eyre Affair
Welcome to a zany surreal version of virtual police-state Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously.

Hrabal, Bohumil - Too Loud a Solitude
Set in Old Town Prague, this is a dark and troubling exploration of passion, beauty, high moral stakes in the midst of a crumbling civilization.

Kundera, Milan – The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Rich in stories, characters and imaginative range, written while Kundera was still forbidden to publish in his home country of Czechoslovakia, which was then behind the Iron Curtain. Different aspects of modern existence -- from the posthumous erasure of "enemies" of communism from the historical record, to the subtle agony of the fading memory of a lost love, to the bizarre sexlessness of modern promiscuity -- are explored with boldness, subversive humor and the magical power of fiction.

Kundera, Milan – The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Set in Czechoslovakia in the 1960's, the story revolves around a young doctor who has a way with women and an aversion to politics. He suddenly finds himself caught up in his country's political turmoil and in a crisis of commitment with the women in his life.

Nafisi, Azar - Reading Lolita in Tehran: a memoir in books (a true account)
The personal and intellectual unfoldings of a private literature class in the mid nineties, in Tehran where a group of seven women, children of the revolution, greatly diverse in religious and political beliefs and backgrounds, take off their chadors and scarves to talk about books.

Dystopias:

Atwood, Margaret - The Handmaid's Tale
Set in Cambridge, Massachusetts, exploring themes of the subjugation of women against the backdrop of a totalitarian theocratic society.

Atwood, Margaret – Oryx and Crake
Examines the collapse of civilization with science and technology amidst a culture of extreme commercialization and commodification of all life.

Brin, David - Glory Season
A moving, satirical and finally transcendent tale of the human spirit at a time when all must come face to face with their glory season.

Brin, David - The Postman
Gordon Krantz survived the Doomwar only to spend years crossing a post-apocalypse United States looking for something or someone he could believe in again.

Burgess, Anthony - A Clockwork Orange
When the freedom of individuals to make choices undermines the safety and stability of society, the state is willing to protect society by taking away freedom of choice and replacing it with prescribed good behavior.

Coetzee, J.M. - Waiting for the Barbarians
An analogy of all men living in complicity with regimes that ignore justice and decency by means of the fall from grace of an unexceptional magistrate of the Empire.

Dunn, Mark - Ella Minnow Pea
A political allegory presenting ideas about totalitarianism, good citizenship, freedom of speech and the heart of religion presented in quotation and letter format.

Elgin, Suzette Hadin - Native Tongue
Focussing on female characters and treating traditional themes of oppression in new and creative ways.

Gibson, William – Neuromancer
Case, an out-of-work computer hacker is hired by a mysterious patron to participate in a seemingly impossible crime. Examines the concepts of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, genetic engineering, multinational corporations overpowering the traditional nation-state and cyberspace.

Gibson, William - Burning Chrome
A collection of short stories mostly taking place in Sprawl, the anonymous, shared setting for most of his cyberpunk work.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins – Herland
Written in 1915, describing an isolated society composed entirely of Aryan women who reproduce via parthenogenesis to produce an ideal social order, free of war, conflict and domination.

Golding, William – Lord of the Flies
A group of schoolboys marooned on a tropical island forge their own society to reveal essential humanity: innocent and corrupt, noble and cruel.

Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World
ew World First published in 1932, a terrifying vision of a controlled and emotionless future society startling in its prediction of modern scientific and cultural phenomena, including test-tube babies and rampant drug abuse.

Kafka, Franz - The Castle
A dark and surreal, novel about alienation, bureaucracy, and the seemingly endless frustrations of an individual’s attempts to stand against the system.

London, Jack - The Iron Heel
A 1908 prophetic novel of the twentieth century.

McCullough, Colleen - Creed for the Third Millennium
Tomorrow's America is a cold and ravaged place, devastated by despair and enduring winter. In a small New England city, senior government official Dr. Judith Carriol finds the man she has been seeking: a deliverer of hope in a hopeless time who can revive the dreams of a shattered people--a healer who must ultimately face damnation through the destructive power of love.

McMullen, Sean - The Greatwinter Trilogy: Souls in the Great Machine, The Miocene Arrow, Eyes of the Calculor
In the 4th millennium war rages with new found technologies.

Orwell, George - Animal Farm
The classic political fable of the dangers of individuality to an oppressive political order.

Orwell, George – 1984
A harrowing cautionary tale of a man trapped in a political nightmare.

Piercy, Marge - Woman on the Edge of Time
Connie is able to communicate with the year 2137. Two totally different ways of life are competing. One is beautiful - communal, non-sexist, environmentally pure, open to ritual and magic. The other is a horror – totalitarian, exploitative, rigidly technological.

Rand, Ayn – Anthem
Classic tale of a future dark age in a world that deprives individuals of name, independence, and values.

Roth, Philip - The Human Stain
Explores the ambiguous boundaries between truth and falsehood, past and present, perception and reality, and offers a moving meditation on the limits of what we can really know about each other.

Vonnegut, Kurt - Player Piano
Chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a super computer and run completely by machines. His rebellion is a wildly funny, darkly satirical look at modern society.

Wells, H.G. - A Time Machine
A social parable of time travel where class systems and natural selection combine to create a horrific civilization.

Zamiatin, Evgenii – We
Set in the One State, where all live for the collective good and individual freedom does not exist.

Fahrenheit 451 Readalikes for teens:

Anderson, M.T. - Feed
Butler, Octavia - Parable of the Sower
Dick, Philip K. - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Golding William - Lord of the Flies
Haddix, Margaret - Among the Hidden
Haddix, Margaret - Among the Imposters
Haddix, Margaret - Running Out of Time
Hentoff, Nat - The Day They Came to Arrest the Book
LeGuin, Ursula - Always Coming Home
LeGuin, Ursula - The Dispossessed
Lowry, Lois - Gathering Blue
Lowry, Lois - The Giver
O'Brien, Robert C. - Z for Zachariah
Peck, Richard - The Last Safe Place on Earth
Pfeffer, Susan Beth - A Matter of Principle
Philbrick, Rodman - The Last Book in the Universe

Fahrenheit 451 Readalikes for young people:

Avi - Nothing but the Truth
Clements, Andrew - The Landry News
Klise, Kate - Regarding the Fountain
Krensky, Stephen - Arthur and the Scare-Your-Pants-Off Club
Neufeld, John - A Small Civil War

Compiled by Kate Skinner, Reference Librarian, Kitsap Regional Library
January 2008

2008-02-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

If you liked the film version of “Fahrenheit 451,” you also might like:

....something from this list of films, compiled by Patrick Gulke, library assistant and Kate Skinner, reference librarian at Kitsap Regional Library.

Alphaville
Secret agent Lemmy Caution travels to another galaxy and finds himself in a computer-run society which is dedicated to technology and outlaws emotion.

Animal Farm
The classic political fable of the dangers of individuality to an oppressive political order.

Brazil
A daydreaming bureaucrat becomes involved with an underground superhero and a beautiful mysterious woman and becomes the tragic victim of his own romantic illusions.

Children of Men
London, 2027. Humanity has become infertile and no child has been born for 18 years. Science is at loss to explain the reason. Immigration is a crime and refugees are caged like animals. African and East European societies have collapsed and their dwindling populations are migrating toward England and other wealthy nations. Torn apart by nuclear fallout, rampant terrorism and political rebellion. In this climate of nationalistic violence, a London peace activist turned bureaucrat Theo Faron, joins forces with Julian, his revolutionary ex-wife, in order to save mankind by protecting a woman who has mysteriously became pregnant. These three set out on a desperate struggle to deliver the world's only pregnant woman to the Human Project with hope that they can discover the cure for global infertility. As they carefully navigate between the battling forces of military police and a pro-immigration insurgency this small group must endure a death-defying ordeal of urban warfare.

The City of Lost Children
This fantastically-twisted fairy tale is chock-full of curious characters and special effects. A sad and heartbroken madman, Krank, is aging prematurely because he can't dream. He kidnaps little children, hoping that eventually he will find a way to steal their sleeping thoughts. The story takes the form of a quest, as a sentimental harpooner-turned-fairground strongman, One, sets out to find his young brother on a dilapidated oil rig. He soon falls in love with the gutsy nine-year old girl (who is head of the orphan gang), and together they run a gauntlet of fantastical dangers as they join hearts and hands to save a small boy's dreams from the madman's master plan.

A Clockwork Orange
Depicts a harrowing journey through a near-future world of decaying cities, murderous adolescents and nightmarish technologies of punishment and crime.

Dr Strangelove
A satire in which the U.S. president and his military advisors struggle ineptly to avert a holocaust after a psychotic Air Force general launches a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union because he fears that the Russians are poisoning the water supply in the United States.

Gattaca
Story about an all-too-human man who dares to defy a system obsessed with genetic perfection. Vincent is an "In-Valid," who assumes the identity of a member of the genetic elite to pursue his goal of traveling into space with the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. However, a week before his mission, a murder marks Vincent as a suspect. With a relentless investigator in pursuit and the colleague he has fallen in love with beginning to suspect his deception, Vincent's dreams steadily unravel.

The Handmaid’s Tale
Set in the near future, the handmaids of the title are women who can still bear children after the ravages of war caused wide-spread sterility. One of the handmaids, Kate, is caught trying to escape the Republic of Gilead and sent to the prison-like training center. She is sent from there to the home of the commander to bear his child, but revolutionary forces have other plans for her!

La Jetee
An unnamed man experiments with time travel, in hopes of finding a solution to the problems of his post-apocalyptic home era. Narrated almost entirely using black-and-white still photographs.

Nineteen Eighty-Four
Winston Smith (Hurt) endures a squalid existence in totalitarian Oceania under the constant surveillance of Big Brother. But his life takes a horrifying turn when he begins a forbidden love affair and commits the crime of independent thought. Sent to the chillingly labeled 'Ministry of Love, ' he is placed at the mercy of O'Brien (Burton), a coolly treacherous leader determined to control his thoughts ... and crush his soul

A Scanner Darkly
Set in a future world where America has lost the war on drugs, and L.A. undercover agents change their faces along with their identities. One officer's liberal ingestion of the drug "Substance D" causes him to develop a split personality, a notorious drug dealer. Along with his superior officers, the police set up an elaborate scheme to catch his drug dealer alter-ego and tear down his operation. Filmed using an animation technique called interpolated rotoscope, with animation over filmed sequences.

Soylent Green
Charlton Heston plays a cop in this 21st century science-fiction horror story. The setting is New York, teeming with 40 million citizens, most of whom are out of work. Environmental erosion is almost complete and voluntary death is encouraged by government-sponsored clinics. For their food, the people have grown to rely almost totally on a greenish, wafer-like substance called soylent. As Heston investigates the murder of a magnate in the dictatorial Soylent Company, he comes face to face with the hideous truth about the secret ingredient of "Soylent Green."

Stalker
At the center of an outlawed region called The Zone lies a mystical room altered by unnatural forces. Armed guards are the first in a series of lethal obstructions that prevent outsiders from reaching the place where fantastic powers can fulfill man's greatest desires. Only the Stalker can lead a scientist and writer through The Zone where an obstacle course of mental and physical barriers tests the limits of their endurance. At the end they must face a room where the center of power and evil confronts them and the future of mankind.

THX – 1138
Like all other drones in the sprawling subterranean technocracy, he has a designation: THX 1138. He's the product of a number-crunching, soul-numbing society. But there's a flaw: He's human and wants out.

Time After Time
H.G. Wells, whose time-travel pursuit of Jack the Ripper delivers him to a modern-day San Francisco, discovers a society far different from the utopia he had envisioned.

The Time Machine
Desperate to alter the course of time, a visionary scientist invents a revolutionary machine that propels him 800,000 years into the future. There he discovers that humans have evolved into two groups: the hunters and the hunted. Now he must fight to save himself, and all of mankind, in a final, desperate battle.

Twelve Monkeys
An inmate from a futuristic prison is sent to the past to gather information about the virus that sent the human race to live underground.

V is for Vendetta
Set against the futuristic landscape of totalitarian Britain, the story of a young working-class woman, Evey, who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked man known only as 'V.' Incomparably charismatic and ferociously skilled in the art of combat and deception, 'V' ignites a revolution when he urges his fellow citizens to rise up against tyranny and oppression. As Evey uncovers the truth about 'V's' mysterious background, she also discovers the truth about herself. She becomes his ally in his plan to bring freedom and justice to a cruel and corrupt society.

Compiled by Patrick Gulke and Kate Skinner
January 2008