Overall I liked this book, it was short but took me a little while to read. This was a story about an imaginary world.. written all the way back to the 1940s? .. About a dystopian future where fire fighters get reconfigured into book destroyers (houses are all fireproof now and accidental fires are obsolete, fires are manmade). Life where ignorance is bliss, happiness can be controlled, and less becomes more. Stick it to the mechanical dogs that can hunt people down based on just a whiff – which was a bit predictable yet cool twist in the end to realize that their invincibilities and perfection are also manmade, and a farce enforced by the controlled media. For it’s time, this book is eerily an accurate representation of our modern world now .. I believe they even mention the year 2030 or so, what a surprise if they discover they were actually close in prediction of time and development, minus the fire proof houses.
And so a bit of fun begins when one of these so called “fire-fighters” decides he actually has a conscious and curiosity. His job was to burn and not think, any instances of people hoarding books. Monotony was just not his thing I guess, couldn’t just stay a puppet, a cog in the system. Like a shameful addiction that you can’t help but do a little bit at a time, enough to hide from others, but not small enough that you can avoid for very long.
I enjoyed the whole knowledge is power bit near the end and the resoluteness of pacifists, to play the waiting game. Success and heroism doesn’t necessarily have to be flashy and extravagant. Should I rate it? I’ll give it a 8/10.