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

I love books about books. I think it’s because it’s an intimate and special kind of love. For me growing up as a lonely kid, books were some of my best friends. I’d spend summers at the library. I’d wonder about book characters and their lives. Reading about how how other people love and think about books so deeply is cathartic.

This author and others who wrote lovingly about books gets it. Maybe some of my friends loves books like I do as this author does but they don’t talk about it with me that way. Nowadays, I have joined a book club which I attend (virtually) where we can talk about my passion for books more. It’s still lovely to read about reading though.

This book has funny and insightful letters to books that the author a librarian has encountered. The last half of the book are all book recommendations. Spence is an older millennial so we have overlapping tastes. We both love Jeffrey Eugenides among other things. Not everyone would appreciate the recs, but they can be helpful.

Definitely a recommendation if you love books about books and libraries.

Read November 15-18, 2020.

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