Bradbury writes, “Montag gazed beyond [the firemen] to the wall with the typed lists of a million forbidden books. Their names leapt in fire, burning down the years under his ax and his hose which sprayed not water but kerosene.”

What is your reaction to the idea that no one in that society is allowed to read books?

It sounds like a pretty horrible society, yet the scary thing is that we can see the possibility of this happening in real life. As technologies advance, it is very possible that people no longer choose to read books and instead view books as an unnecessary mean of communication. There are already forbidden and banned books around the world. When nobody wants to read books anymore, there will be more and more books banned and forgotten.

In addition, think about the million forbidden books. Name five books that you have read or know about that you hope would not be found on the list. Describe what it is about these books that you feel are so important.

1. The Art of War（孫子兵法）: I’ve never actually read this book but I think it should hold a lot of educational value.
2. Analects of Confucius （論語）: very educational, teaches morals, etc.
3. One of my favorite series, way underrated: Le Prince des Nuages/the prince of the clouds. The original is in French. It is a science fiction/adventure series, and includes lots of non-fiction fact files about clouds all through out the series. I think the world-building of this story is amazing, and the educational value is also very important!
4. Today （今天）: this book tells 366 historical and real stories based on each day of the year, and it teaches us a lesson for each of the stories. A very simple but wonderful idea.
5. The Book Thief: If this book was not forbidden during times like in Farenheit 451, it would be really interesting to see people’s reactions to it. But otherwise, I think this book is really deep and really makes you think.

Here are just some books that sprang to mind. There are definitely loads more books out there that I love, but here are just five that are more likely to be forbidden, I suppose. (And I sort of just chucked Le Prince des Nuages in there??) Would it be cheating if I put Farenheit 451 down on the list?