In Fahrenheit 451, what two important conclusions does Montag reach immediately following the incident with the old woman who decides to die with...

After the old woman burns to death with her books, Montag
returns home with one of her books that "fell into his hands." He sees this not as an
act of theft, but of something his hands themselves did without his conscious
instruction. He speaks with his wife and experiences fear and
doubt.

The first important conclusion Montag reaches is
that he feels no substantial connection to his wife. She goes to the bathroom and takes
sleeping pills, and he tries to think of what he would do if she died. He comes to the
conclusion that he would not weep, because she and he are not truly connected. This in
itself, coupled with her complete dispassion over their neighbor's death, brings him to
tears.

The second important conclusion Montag reaches is
that books are not simply a collection of words on paper, but the physical
representation of the writer's life and experiences. Instead of being inanimate objects,
powerful only to those who read, they are the equivalent of a person's life, distilled
into a form one can hold, lend, and experience more than once. This revelation, compared
with the intangible TV walls and short attention spans of the world's inhabitants,
brings him to wonder if there is any underlying truth in the rest of the
world.