I recently finished reading Dear Fahrenheit 451 — Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks by Annie Spence.  The book is “a librarian’s love letters and breakup notes to the books in her life.”

The collection of letters is a clever and unique idea.  Here are just a few of the book’s gems I’d like to share with you:

When addressing The Giving Tree, Ms. Spence has this snarky bit to say:

“It started out so sweet with you.  I thought you were about being, you know, giving, and how generosity fills us all up with happiness.  This tree you talk about keeps giving and giving and GIVING and you say she’s happy, but I don’t know. Tree was not happy.  My girl was suffering.  First off, she is the only tree in that goddamn forest.”

A short paragraph about the long-lasting effect of Charlotte’s Web:

“I don’t exactly remember, but I think this is the first book I cried over, and I still never kill spiders in my shower.  That’s how you know a book has stuck with you.”

In a letter to The Fledgling, Ms. Spence reminds us of the power of reading the right book at the right time:

“You comforted me in a way that no one else’s words could have managed, reminding me of my own natural soul.  Of the person I am when I don’t have to be anything else.”

And this thoughtful bit is a love letter to the Public Library Children’s Section:

“You make it look easy, like fun even.  But what you do is hard work.  Important work.  And you’re the only one that can do it.  Kids come to you for lots of different reasons.  These kids have got to fall in love with you.  They need to learn to read, so they can love to read, so they can understand how many different lives they are capable of.  It’s VERY important.  Be a place of peaceful comfort and rowdy imagination and encourage lots of plan making for the future.”