Saturday, August 22 was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ray Bradbury, the American author most credited for bringing science fiction into the literary mainstream through such books as The Martian Chronicles. The Library of Congress, along with other libraries across the country, is recognizing this centennial through a free YouTube-based public reading of Bradbury’s most famous work–his literary paean to the value of books, Fahrenheit 451.
While the recordings contain some readings by celebrities–Neil Gaiman reads the opening part, while William Shatner delivers the closing section–most of the readings are by librarians or even the public. I did listen to Gaiman’s section, which was great. However, I’ve dropped into some other samples, and discovered that librarians are also great public readers, even if we don’t know their names.
The recordings are groups by the three parts that make up the printed version. All together, the videos take up a little over five hours of recorded time. That’s not a lot of time to spend on a book that reminds us of the dangers of allowing authorities to control our access to information, not to mention recognizing an author that had such an impact on American literature.
I’m embedding the video for the first part below, but to catch the whole thing, visit the Bradbury Centennial website at: https://raybradbury.com/centennial/.