2022: definitely a classic worth taking the time to read

There's a reason this one has been so popular for so long. It took me a little bit to get into, but you do need to just sort of go with the flow here. Bradbury adapted this original short story into a longer novel, so there are definitely some elements that are not fully developed. I kept having to pause this audiobook to think about the questions it brought up: if you don't keep any records, do you have any history of how the world once was? Will we as a society ever get to a point where books will be entirely overshadowed by other types of media?

It was a delight watching Montag discover the world of books and learn more about the history of his world, but I wish it hadn't come at the expense of his wife. She was such an asshole of a character. Clarisse made up for the total lack of redeemable female characters a bit, but she was only in the book for such a short time that it almost doesn't count. I would love to see some other adaptations of this book, or consider an expansion of the story, but it also makes much more sense when you consider the context of the US / the world when it was originally written.

I had such high hopes for the Michael B. Jordan film version of this book, but it got terrible reviews, so I haven't prioritized it yet. Maybe now is the time!