Dear Fahrenheit 451

Spence, Annie. Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks. New York: Flatiron 2018. Print.

First Sentences:

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Dear Fahrenheit 451. Shall we be --- wait, I know you guys! Do you remember me?

I'm your public librarian! I walked you over to the Murakami that time. I helped you get the DVD about exploring New Zealand and you came back and told me about how wonderful your trip was and we both got tears in our eyes. Remember when you said you paid my salary and mumbled "bitch" under your breath when I wouldn't do your kid's research paper for them? I'm that bitch!

Description:

When I read books, I tear off bits of my paper bookmark and place them in pages to indicate sections that have important (to me) phrases, clever thoughts, and references to books I'd like to read. Usually that means about 2-6 markers for my favorite books.

In Annie Spence's Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks, I had twenty-seven pages marked. I counted because I couldn't believe it. I wanted to remember so many books to record into my "To be read" notebook, as well as all Spence's clever, snarky phrases I wanted re-use on someone else and pass them off as my own. 

Spence, a public librarian, writes letters to her books. Seriously. She tells individual books why each has: A) influenced her life; B) infuriated/disappointed her; C) had an impact on a library user; D) unfortunately will be weeded out of the collection and relegated to the book sale table.

Sound kooky to you? Well, it's not. Maybe because I, too, am a reader and former librarian and have harbored similar thoughts about books, Dear Fahrenheit 451 works for me. I was completely captured by Spence's impassioned, one-sided conversations to individual books. I loved her intelligent, humorous, self-deprecating, and thoroughly engaging style and tone, and dream that someday I could write as engagingly and with the hipness she delivers on every page.

Some examples are in order:

• [to Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins Mystery Series] - God, I love wandering down dicey alleys with you, roughing people up if they need it...I've begun thinking of myself as one of your characters. I've started wearing dark sunglasses and popping my collar when I'm in public, looking furtively over my shoulder every few minutes, which makes the other playgroup moms nervous. I can tell. They've stopped offering me their extra Luna bars.

• [to John Steinbeck's Cannery Row] - You've still got that quiet lopsided charm about you....Your pages look just the right shade of yellow, your text just dark and smoodgie enough to give me a deep-nostril thrill ride. The only better smell than a creaky paperback for a book sniffer like me is a real inky graphic novel.

• [to Nikki Giovanni's Love Poems] - I like to have you around in the kitchen so I can read a poem while the water boils and another while the butter melts, and so on. It's a reminder to read slow and savor you, and the smells of the cooking make me more aware of my senses.

• [to Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451] - You were created in a library, and I'm comforted by the fact that you'll remain on library shelves around the world. If we ever get to a point when you're not included in the core of a book collection, we're all fucked. Like "Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces. Stand back from the centrifuge" type fucked. Some days the world feels closer to that point than I'm comfortable with.

• [to Patti Smith's Just Kids] - I'm so smitten with you, I can't help but pick you up when I waiting for tea to boil or brushing my teeth. And especially in bed. Actually, in bed is where the trouble begins. My husband is jealous of you....I've been reading you in all of my spare moments. I haven't heard a word he's said to me to two days. 

• [to her own Future Book Collection] -  A locked door will lead into the room. This will be essential. There will be a doorbell; however, entry is denied unless visitor-candidates answer a series of questions posed by an exasperated robot voice: "Did you just put something in your mouth?" "Did you check in the pants you wore last night?" "Can I just get a minute here for Christ's sake?" Basically, my top three phrases. Once the riffraff is sorted through, serious visitors will be allowed inside if they agree to speak only about books or to remain silent and bring a cheesy snack....[the] books will be organized by Emotion, including "I'm Just Going to Read Instead of Do What I Need to Do Today" section, "Reminiscing About First Loves" section, "Am I Crying Through Laughter or Laughing Through Tears" section, etc]

Have to stop these now, but Spence give readers many more reading suggestions and witticisms in special sections, including:

• "Excuses To Tell Your Friends So You Can Stay Home with Your Books"

• "Turning Your Lover into a Reader"

• "Good Books with Bad Covers"

• "Books That Lead to More Books"

• "Books I'll Never Break Up With"

If you love reading, are looking for a wide variety of new books to peruse, or if just want to lose yourself in the wide-ranging thoughts of a clever person talking all things books and reading, Dear Fahrenheit 451 is the book to grab. But be advised. Your bedside table and list of books to be read will grow to epic size. I know mine did.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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