Scary how it still is relevant today

Book 15: 1984 by George Orwell
Wow. that. was. strange.

It follows the story of Winston and the way his life is in this "Utopian" society; Big Brother is always watching you. He meets this girl named Julia and things start to change for him, then a man named O'Brian--who works with Winston--pops into the picture and things really begin to change.

I had seen the movie before and I wasn't too impressed, but the way that the movie depicted everything was way different from when I was reading and the world that I saw. There were some twists and turns that help drive the story along, but there are times that you really are dragging through the writing.

It is amazing how relevant some of the stuff in this book is today; it was kind of scary actually. I found myself kind of nodding and thinking "yeah, that actually is kind of happening today" and then I realized that it wasn't as bad (in most parts of the world) but this could possibly happen.

There is a paragraph in the afterward that really stuck with me and sums up the book nicely. It states "George Orwell's 1984 is the expression of a mood, and it is a warning. The mood it expresses is that of near despair about the future of man, and the warning is that unless the course of history changes, men all over the world will lose their most human qualities, will become soulless automatons, and will not even be aware of it." I think that paragraph has some merit, but I'll let you decide on your own.

This book is a bit long and tedious (in some parts) but it has some high points. I wouldn't recommend it if you are looking for a upbeat story, but it does make you think. It is written in the 1950s style of writing, but it wasn't too much of a distraction--at least for me it wasn't.