Annie Spence - Dear Fahrenheit 451

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!

Comment: It is very likely that any book lover will appreciate, somehow, books written for readers or about the world of books. I decided to read this book because it was written by a librarian and I imagined a lot of content related to that or to books in general and I like to read books where authors present their side of things, especially if there's interaction with the public, as it certainly happens in libraries.

In this non fiction work, author and librarian Annie Spence has written funny and interesting letters to some of the books she came across in her reading life and also through work. She has also added a few recommendations afterwards so that a reader who likes a certain genre might feel curious about the titles mentioned. 

I would say this is a worthy book to read simply due to the theme. Again, if someone likes books, this is yet another book about books which offers a captivating view on something that never loses its fascination. I was particularly interested too in seeing how the letters to whichever books the author would choose would contain some kind of anecdote or personal context regarding the library. I suppose I must have created a wrong assumption about this; with one single exception, none of the several books the author writes to have anything to do with library patrons or stories featuring them; all are random personal opinions and, sadly to me, most aren't that funny.

Basically, the book is divided into two parts, the biggest with the letters and the second with the recommendations. The author tried to use a fun/uplifting tone and wrote things in a way that the reader would feel is witty and cool but while I appreciated the diversity of the books chosen (I'd also expect a majority of fictional titles), reading these letters felt a little repetitive. The same tone, the same need to write funny or amazing things.... even when saying goodbye to a book... it's certainly a unique perspective but I was hoping for something even more personal.

With this I mean the style used by the author didn't feel as special as it could be, considering this is her POV. The letters just didn't captivate me... I could easily read each one and move on to the next, rarely stopping to commit anything to memory... like a list to simply go through. Obviously, I was more interested in the very unique titles or the ones I was familiar with, but nothing really stayed with me and apart from the book of the title and two or three others, I can't remember which books the author mentions anymore.

If, as it happened to other non fiction about books I've tried, this would have been about the author's experience reading or how she interacted with the library patrons who read these books and now she was sharing that, I probably would have liked that perspective more, in fact I was looking for it... since it was not, I've adjusted my expectations but quickly lost most of my interest.

In regards to the recommendations, I suppose they are good ones and some readers will want to check them, I did recognize a few titles I'd agree with recommending if I had to pick specific genres or sub genres, but nothing really called to me. I did look for one title but that quick look was enough to convince me to not want to try it after all.

In the end, this was only average to me... I like this idea of having the library as a setting and it does seem fascinating to get people's opinions on books, perhaps if this had been about readers's opinions shared with the librarian I'd have loved it.

Grade: 5/10