[read: the most terrifying of dystopias]

“It was a pleasure to burn.” 

Goosebumps. The first time I really considered the power in this line was in my Modern Bestseller class. My professor pointed it out as one of the best first lines in all of literature (which I totally didn’t listen to the first time because one of my sorority sisters and I always wreaked havoc in that class by being annoyingly chatty). I first read Fahrenheit 451 in middle school, during one of my reading sprees when I’d have 13 books to read in a week.

I remember taking a lot longer on this book than I thought I would. It scared me. I was 12 and didn’t understand why people would burn books. Books were my best friends, so didn’t everyone else love them too? That’s when I realized that books were also dangerous, to some people, because they had the power to change the world.

Thinking of dystopian novels, Bradbury’s definitely tops my list of least preferred. Sorry, Margaret Atwood. Books give people life, freedom, knowledge, joy, and an escape. Without them, I have no idea who I’d be.

10 out of 10 would recommend.