To listen or not to listen?

Reading according to Websters Dictionary is an  activity of interpreting music, a situation, or something said or written.   But it also means to be able to read a written or printed text.  Today one can read in a variety of formats; the traditional format can be read on the computer, on one's kindle, or on a traditionally bounded set of printed words.  But also reading is now being defined as listening to books; the reader can listen to complete books via audio c.d.s or via a MP3 file, on their computer.

But is listening to an audio book reading?  Does listening to a book constitute the same experience as reading one?  Will the reader's reaction to the book be influenced by the listening experience?  Some authors have published and read their own works on an Audio format.  Neil Gammon read his Graveyard Book and recorded it onto C.D..  I ponder if my liking Fahrenheit 451 was due me listening to it, and not reading it.  Bradbury is a really good oral story teller, but is his writing good?  Hmm we ponder!

Fahrenheit 451 (A Review)

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Fahrenheit 451 is a story set in the future, told as a parable* about the role of the critic/teacher and the independent reader.  The book takes place in a future where literature is burned and thinking is a Capital Crime.   The only books allowed in this future dystopia are those that don't make you think, like Richie Rich or Archie comic books.  The big thing you can ask questions, but don't ask why, never ask why.  The main characters Montag and Faber battle against each other in war between the preservation of books and the need to burn them all.
The characters in the story represent the battle between readers and those that stand in the way of the reader.   Montag represents the blank piece of paper.  Faber represents a pencil with an eraser.   Faber desires to graft the critics wholesome viewpoint on the blank unwritten mind.  Faber types feel the best way to keep the people mailable is through the work of firemen, the maintainers of ignorance. The defenders of the thinkers are the librarians who maintain the critical mind by safeguarding valuable books.
Teachers sterilize the independent yearning of students when they dictate what one should think about this or that book.   Society stands conditioned as trained morons, to use Prussian systematization to condition our future to be like drones thinking with homogenized answer.  The homogenized answer is a problem in a divergent complex world.
The group discussion at the Larry Jackson Library was indepth, and full of insight. Don't miss next month's book discussion at the Main Library or the Jackson Library on the book: Emily's Ghost.

Fahrenheit 451 is a Classic Tale-and I liked it a lot!!!

(Listened to this on Audio C.D. Read for B.S.I. Lakeland.)



*(a short story that uses familiar events to illustrate a religious or ethical point)



View all my reviews

Loving Frank Excerpt

To announce the care free atmosphere of the space within, Frank had stationed statues of some sprites on either side of the main entrance, their heads bent down.  They seemed to wink at Mamah as she passed through the entry.  - 

Horan, Nancy Loving Frank page 318

50 States of Reading: Wisconsin

BSI Lakeland, Florida- Loving Frank is a love story, or a passion story of two married people who find love outside of their marriages.  Amanda Ross in the Daily Mail of the U.K. poignantly tells why the story is important to readers today:

Nancy Horan grew up surrounded by the work of the celebrated architect Frank Lloyd Wright, in Oak Park, Illinois.  She lived on the same street as Lloyd Wright’s most infamous client, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, their affair rocked society yet very little has been written about her. Biographers of Lloyd Wright, and admirers of his work have glossed over the relationship, concerned that the unsavoury personal details would diminish his architectural achievements.  Nancy was fascinated by the highly educated Mamah, who inspired such passion in Frank that he left his wife and six children to be with her, a scandalous act at any time, but particularly so in 1909.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-1092279/Wild-passion-high-society-Loving-Frank-Nancy-Horan.html#ixzz0zmykSRK4


A review by Gregorio Roth will be coming at the beginning of October... look for it!!!!!

This book represents Wisconsin