One in a long, long, long list of projects I have in my mind, to carry out an elusive “someday” that is not today, is to cultivate a list of books that are ideally read at a certain age: To Kill a Mockingbird at 12 and then again at 16 and then again at 21; Catcher in the Rye at 15, and then again at 16, and then never, never, never again. I want to be able to be introduced to other people’s children and, instead of awkwardly asking them their favorite reptile, provide them with the book that may well turn them into a reader.
While this isn’t exactly what Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks does, it does apply the same notion of pleasant nostalgia to the books that shaped us.
The book, written by librarian and bibliophile Annie Spence, starts out as a series of letters to tomes she’s culling from her collection, be it because they’re old news (like The Calculating Book: Fun and Games with your Pocket Calculator) or because they never quite caught on (like Cornzapoppin’, a cookbook devoted entirely to popcorn) or because they’re so beloved and dog-eared they’re falling apart (like The Goldfinch). Her letters to these books had me filling pages with titles to add to my reading list (Jane Eyre, The Virgin Suicides, Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni), but more than that, it had me considering which books I would write my own love letters to.
Which brings me back to that original project.
Someday…
For now, I’ll leave you with this list (in no particular order) of ten books that shaped me – often in large part because I read them at the precisely right time – and an enthusiastic encouragement to check this witty, smart book out from your local library and give it a whirl.
- White Oleander, by Janet Fitch
- Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
- The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
- Bloomability, by Sharon Creech
- Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
- Mother Night, Kurt Vonnegut
- Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
- The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
- All-of-a-Kind Family, Sydney Taylor
Maybe someday, I’ll tell you why.