Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks by Annie Spence

Reviewed by Jeanne

Are you a reader who really connects with your books?  Do they feel as if they have personalities of their own? Then try Annie Spence’s collection of essays, Dear Fahrenheit 451 in which she writes letters to the books in her life.  Note that these are not all love letters; she’s pretty sure that Sparks’ Dear John has already had enough heartache, so she tries to reject him gently.  She can get gritty and not just with books she truly dislikes. And poor Anna Karenina.  Annie has really tried to read you—sort of—but as she says, “There will come a day, probably, when I get a hankering for a bleak 864-page novel translated from Russian.  But until that day, back to the shelves you go.”  She wanted to say “goodbye” in Russian, but it turns out that is really hard to spell.

 Then there are the breakups, books she originally loved but now—not so much.  The Giving Tree, for example, or The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  And sometimes, because she’s a librarian, she has to break the news to the book about fun and games with your calculator that it’s just a teeny bit behind with the times and not too many people spend time typing 07734 on a calculator to turn it upside down as a clever message to a friend.  There are rapturous essays to The Time Traveler’s Wife and Matilda, and an appreciation to Agatha Christie for writing the sort of book that almost everyone likes.

Spence also offers tips on the kind of excuses to use to friends when you’d rather stay home and read or suggestions for paired book readings. In other words, it’s a good browsing book, whether or not you agree with her choices—how can she not love The Hobbit?-- and the writing is lively and fun, with occasional bursts of profanity (usually reflecting the content of the book in question).

If you're looking for a nice stocking stuffer for one of the readers in your life, this could be just the thing!