In Your Dreams! An Extraordinary Gifts Guide, Part 1

1.

FAHRENHEIT 451
by Ray Bradbury
Introduced by Michael Moorcock.
Illustrated by Sam Weber.
Bound in buckram.
Frontispiece and 5 colour illustrations.
Book size: 9½" × 5¾", 176 pages.

Find it at Folio Books, Goodreads
------------------------------------- In 1950, Ray Bradbury had a kernel of an idea for a story, and rented a typewriter in the basement of the UCLA library for nine days (it cost him $9.80). Dashing from the basement to the stacks to track down half-remembered quotations and typing at furious speed, in that short time he produced the first draft of an extraordinary novel. Serialised, widely published, adapted for film, theatre and even opera, the book, as Bradbury wrote, ‘seems to have a life that goes on recreating itself’.

Fahrenheit 451 envisages a dystopian future in which the job of firemen is to seek out books, and burn them. Montag is a fireman who enjoys his job, wearing ‘the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame.’ He agrees with his boss who tells him how much happier people are now, watching endless television at high volume, than when they read books and thought for themselves. Then one night, Montag meets a young girl with ‘unconventional’ habits – walking at night, collecting butterflies and tasting rain. Something about the girl forces Montag to look at his world differently: children in cars running down pedestrians for fun, his wife overdosing regularly on sleeping pills, and his neighbour proud that her children would ‘just as soon kick as kiss me’. Montag realises that ‘we have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing.’ Such subversive thoughts will lead Montag to rebel – and rebellion has terrible consequences.

‘A disturbing tale that explores the maxim “ignorance is bliss” to its fullest’THE TIMES

Bradbury’s bleak admonitory vision is not of a tyrannical government, but of people who did this to themselves. His fictional dystopia began with a wave of political correctness that censored and silenced uncomfortable opinions; then interactive, reality TV swamped critical thought; and finally, each individual’s ‘right’ to the pursuit of happiness removed any sense of responsibility and even emotion itself. Over 60 years on, the fears raised by Fahrenheit 451 have not lessened. Yet at the book’s heart is a profound optimism: books are symbolic of humankind’s capacity for reflection and understanding, which can save us from our equally powerful capacity for self-destruction. This edition includes a new introduction by science-fiction writer Michael Moorcock and a series of astonishingly life-like illustrations by Sam Weber, which perfectly capture the novel’s haunting atmosphere.


2.

Virtual Keyboard

Put the future at your fingertips with our virtual laser keyboard. 

• Revolutionary laser technology projects a virtual keyboard on any flat surface
• Advanced optics track your fingers like magic
• Connect via Bluetooth® wireless technology
• Easily pair the laser projection keyboard with your smartphone, laptop or tablet 
• Compact, keychain design makes our virtual keyboard super portable
• Rechargeable li-ion battery (USB cord included)
• Only at Brookstone

You touch, it types. 
Don’t let the keychain fool you, inside advanced optics are hard at work tracking your fingers like magic. 

All dystopias, in my opinion, now take place in some seemingly futuristic setting that now includes Laser Projected Virtual Keyboards. I envision myself sitting in some hidden room, posting some "fight the power" esq. posts with my laser keyboard.  

Now that I've got my book, my keyboard, all I need is some serious footwear to help me kick some major a$%.

3.

Dr. Martens 1460 All-Over Stud Boot

Overview:
* Punky, updated version of the iconic lace-up boot from Dr. Martens
* Leather upper topped all-over, cone-stud embellishment
* Pull-loop logo-tag detail at top-heel
* Cotton cord laces; enamel eyelets
* Signature welted PVC soles
* Padded leather footbed
* 1.5" heel

I mean, they are too awesome to NOT wear- even though in said dystopia these boots would make me completely conspicuous, and therefore get me arrested immediately. I may have to reconsider wearing them in public.....