Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell)

It's good, and important, but I like "We" even more. Everyone should read them both!

Not my cup of tea. I mainly read fantasy/sci-fi for a bit of escapism and 1984 isn't really the place I want to escape to.

Half of the strength of this book lies in the unsympathetic nature of its characters - yet it makes for a terribly depressing (if informative) read. I was tempted not to read it again because of that, after I read it several years ago.
Overall a well written treatise on the mind control of the masses - the scariest aspect of this book for me is the idea of newspeak.

It would get 5 stars if it wasn't so depressing.

The ultimate dystopian prophecy, written more as a warning than a prediction, and still terrifying today. And when we read about the masses being controlled by cheap newspapers dealing mainly with sport, crime and astrology and music composed by a machine called a versificator we realise that much of what he wrote about has come true, albeit in a more subtle way than is imagined in 1984.

Perhaps the ultimate irony of the book is that the pap television programme of the same name is exactly one of these controling mechanisms. We sit glued to meritless s**t on our TV screens, placated into not worrying about the fact that Orwell's ultimate target, totalitarianism, is still being enacted around the world. Whether it be China, Iran, N Korea, the USA or even this country.

Everyone should read this.