Name: Dear Fahrenheit 451
ISBN: 9781432848392

Annie Spence

In Dear Fahrenheit 451 , librarian Annie Spence has crafted love letters and breakup notes to the iconic and eclectic books she has encountered over the years. From breaking up with The Giving Tree (a dysfunctional relationship book if ever there was one), to her love letter to The Time Traveler's Wife (a novel less about time travel and more about the life of a marriage, with all of its ups and downs), Spence will make you think of old favorites in a new way.

Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks

Dear Fahrenheit 451

A Gen-X librarian's laugh-out-loud funny, deeply moving collection of love letters and break-up notes to the books in her life. Librarians spend their lives weeding. Not weeds, but books! Books that have reached the end of their shelf life, both literally and figuratively. They remove the ones that patrons no longer check out, and they put back the ones they treasure. Annie Spence, who has a decade of experience as a Midwestern librarian, does this not only at her Michigan library but also at home, for her neighbors, at cocktail parties—everywhere. In Dear Fahrenheit 451, she addresses those books directly. We read her love letters to Just Kids and Frog and Toad Storybook Treasury, as well as her break-ups with The Giving Tree and Dear John. Her notes to The Goldfinch and The Time Traveler’s Wife feel like classics. Through the lens of the books in her life, Annie comments on everything from feminism to health to poverty to childhood aspirations. Hilarious, compassionate, and wise, Dear Fahrenheit 451 is the consummate book-lover's book.

Melissa Palmer

Book #82 Read in 2018
Dear Fahrenheit 451 by Annie Spence

This is a book for book lovers. Spence writes love letters to the books that have been a joy to here and break up letters to those books that didn't work for her. Either way, readers will enjoy revisiting book memories.

ofgodzeus

I really enjoyed the book's structure of love letters to books. It's very fun to listen to, it's funny, it's quick and light. The reason for which I took a star off is not because of the book itself but mostly because of me, and the fact that I didn't read many of the books mentionned in this book yet. So, yeah.. didn't get some parts and was low-key a little bored skimming through them. Other than that, loved it tbh. Very enjoyable and I believe it's read by the author herself (I listened to the audiobook) which I always think it's pretty cool.

Celeste Richardson

You can now find this review and more at Novel Notions. 

I’m so tempted to frame this review as a letter to the book in question. Should I? Shouldn’t I? I think I should. 

*Clears throat*

Dear Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks,

You are exactly what a book about books should be. You are witty and charming and irreverent, and I loved every second I spent with you. I borrowed you from the library, but I think I’m going to have to save up and buy a copy of you for myself, because you absolutely rock. There’s this shelf in my study full of like-minded books who I’m sure would love to meet you. It’s crowded right now, but you deserve a place there. Some of your more disappointing compatriots will just have to move to the back so you can take centerstage. 

Your subtitle, A Librarian’s Love Letters and Break-Up Notes to the Books in her Life, was just such a perfect description of you. I’m a sucker for epistolary books as well as books about books, and libraries have always been my happy place, so you checked all kinds of boxes for me before I ever even cracked your cover. I was honestly kind of nervous to open you, because you looked so perfect on the surface that I was scared your beauty would turn out to be only skin deep. How wrong I was. 

Annie, the hilarious librarian who penned you, has radically different tastes in book than me. Her all-time favorite book is one of my least favorite books I’ve ever read, one of less than half a dozen I hated enough to rate one-star on Goodreads. The book made me so angry that I actually went and threw it in the trunk of my car when I finished reading it, intending to sell it back to the used book store. But I kept forgetting, and then the store closed down, so I threw it in the back of a closet instead of even tucking it in a back bottom corner of one of my shelves; I didn’t think it deserved the space. I’ve only ever loathed one book enough to set it on fire after reading it (gives stink eye to the charred remains of Joyce’s Ulysses), but this book ran a close second. After hearing Annie gush so much about it (The Virgin Suicides, in case anyone was wondering) while I perused your pages, I actually went and dug in the closet until I found my copy. I dusted it off, and gave it a tiny sliver of my shelf space. It might be in the back corner of a bottom shelf, but I decided that I might give it another try one day. All thanks to you, Dear. You really know how to entice a girl into lowering her literary inhibitions. Your pages also lauded Wuthering Heights, but my opinion on that one didn’t change. I do have some standards.

Annie is a fan of juicy memoirs and cozy stories set in idyllic little towns. I’m an escapist, and prefer my books fantastical. But you made me consider reading outside my comfort zone. You’re smart and funny and a little judgmental, and I wish I still had you so I could flip through your pages and tell you all the ways your author and I are different readers, but why we would be friends anyway. She loves books just for being books, and so do I. There were a couple of your letters that I related to so hard. “Dear Magnificent Library Featured in Beauty and the Beast Movie” could have come straight from my brain. Belle was my hero when I was a little girl, because she was a brave, brainy brunette bookworm, and I wanted to be her. Plus, that library, y’all. I have a might need for that library. Also, “Dear Fancy Bookshelf at a Party I wasn’t Technically Invited To” was hilarious, and spending all of my time staring at a bookshelf while at someone else’s house is something I’ve totally done.

All of that to say, I loved reading you. You made me giggle and rethink books I hated and remember books I loved. You added books to my gigantic reading list, which I’m not positive I should be thanking you for, since it would take me four lifetimes to read the books already on that list. But most of all, thanks for just being you, Dear Fahrenheit 451. You were a pleasure to read, and I’m totally adding you to my Christmas list.

Hope to see you again soon,

Celeste

Ruby Huber

This was absolutely adorable. Heartwarming, hilarious, a true delight for anyone who loves books and especiallyyyyy anyone who loves Jeffrey Eugenides. Just so cute.

A librarian's laugh-out-loud funny, deeply moving collection of love letters and breakup notes to the books in her life. If you love to read, and presumably you do since you’ve picked up this book (!), you know that some books affect you so profoundly they forever change the way you think about the world. Some books, on the other hand, disappoint you so much you want to throw them against the wall. Either way, it’s clear that a book can be your new soul mate or the bad relationship you need to end. In Dear Fahrenheit 451, librarian Annie Spence has crafted love letters and breakup notes to the iconic and eclectic books she has encountered over the years. From breaking up with The Giving Tree (a dysfunctional relationship book if ever there was one), to her love letter to The Time Traveler’s Wife (a novel less about time travel and more about the life of a marriage, with all of its ups and downs), Spence will make you think of old favorites in a new way. Filled with suggested reading lists, Spence’s take on classic and contemporary books is very much like the best of literature—sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes surprisingly poignant, and filled with universal truths. A celebration of reading, Dear Fahrenheit 451 is for anyone who loves nothing more than curling up with a good book...and another, and another, and another!

Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian's Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life

I needed this book! I was in such a rut, and I needed a "stupid happy book" to drag me out of it. I found it in this.

Now, I didn't have high hopes so I was very happily surprised. Let's be real, this is a book of letters written to books. It's literally her talking directly to books as if they're people, with some peppering of sarcasm, profanity, and fun drunk stories along the way. 

I see many people don't like the language. Personally, I didn't think it was too much, but that's just my taste. If you don't like someone swearing, you might just want to borrow it from the library and see if it's too much for you. Everyone is different, I think she hit an okay middle-ground.

I think to approach this book, you just want to be ready to "gab" about books. This is obviously someone's single opinions on books. I liked that while some of these letters were meaningful and very heartwarming, and others were just "savage" and very sarcastic and fun to read. I didn't want a book of someone loving every book they've ever read.

All in all, this is a must read if you like books and cull your own collection, because I'm sure we've all said some similar things in our head. I'd love to get a drink with this author, she sounds like a blast!

Jeni Enjaian

I really wanted to like this book. I really did. 
At first I did like it. I loved the idea of writing letters to books. Then she dismissed "The Hobbit." Additionally, and actually more importantly, she spent so much time talking about books that involve sex of some kind. There are so many amazing, wonderful books out there and Spence discusses hardly any of them. 
I'm thankful it was a quick read.

b.andherbooks

I read a few of these "letters" and while charming I wasn't compelled to read the entire book. Not sure what the non-library worker will get out of this either, but if you love books, worth a flip through.

Rachel

Funny book by a librarian talking to different books she deals with at her job at a public library and ones that touched her personally. Good book to listen to!

Dear Fahrenheit 451 Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks

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