By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Have you ever loved a book so much you didn’t want to let it go?
Or fallen out of love with an old favorite, and wanted to tell it off?
Now you have a chance to share those thoughts through a Sitka Reads event that invites you to read “Dear Fahrenheit 451: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Break-Up Notes to Her Books,” then participate in author Annie Spence’s own cathartic exercise of writing to the book with complaints, praise, suggestions or rage.
Spence wrote more than 50 such letters to books, including classics, romances, trendy titles and cookbooks, including the below:
“Dear Better Homes and Gardens Dieting For One,
“Though you sit among my Martha Stewarts and kitschy old cookbooks now, I found you in the free-book bin. Because the relative of whoever died and left you in their house looked at you and thought, ‘here’s another cookbook from the 1980s with disgusting food photography and an excessive addition of fruit to meat dishes.’ ... I’m going to give it to you straight: that person was not wrong.”
Sitka Reads is based on similar events around the state and country which challenge everyone in a population to read the same book. This event is one of several around the 100th anniversary of the public library in Sitka, which will be marked with a celebration April 1.
Sitka Library Director Jessica Ieremia, Adult Services Librarian Margot O’Connell and Jeff Budd, a member of the 100th celebration committee, picked the Annie Spence book for its lighthearted appeal and potential for Sitkans to participate in an activity together, talk about books and share their connection with them.
Sitka Public Library’s Margot O’Connell, left, and Jessica Ieremia stand near the entrance of the library with materials promoting the Sitka Reads program. As part of the library’s 100th anniversary celebration, the program invites Stikans to check out a copy of “Dear Fahrenheit 451: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Break-Up Notes to Her Books,” and write their own love letters or break-up notes. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
A total of 25 copies of the book are available at the library, with more copies on the way if they are snatched up. The Sitka Reads posters went up this week in a joint project of the library, the Friends of the Sitka Public Library, and the 100th committee.
“Read completely at your own pace – there’s no hurry there,” O’Connell said.
The second part of this event is after you are done with the book, you can write a similar letter through a QR code link on Sitka Reads posters, or bookmarks that come with the book when you check it out at the library.
There is no limit to the number of letters, and no requirement to include your name, but O’Connell hopes a lot of people do include their names.
Describing the book, O’Connell said,
“It’s love letters to all of her favorite books, and some break-up letters to books she used to love and doesn’t anymore. When you’re done, write your own love letter or break-up letter or why (you) love the library.”
Other events for the 100th include last Thursday’s Adult Spelling Bee, which drew about 20 teams; a historic tour of the former locations of the library on April 8, led by committee and friends member Martina Kurzer; an art show all April, curated by Sandra Fontaine; and a book trivia night on April 20.
Kari Sagel, also on the 100th anniversary committee, said the tour was the “brainchild of Bill Foster,” who worked with Ariadne Will to create a new history of the Sitka Public Library. The booklet will be available at the April 1 celebration and on the tour.
Another event in the works is a tea to honor the late Louise Brightman, who made her mark in more than four decades of librarianship in Sitka.
“Stories will be shared,” Sagel said.
Ieremia said the 100th has been extra work for volunteers and staff but worth it.
“Just seeing the joy,” she said.
O’Connell was born and raised in Sitka, and Kettleson Memorial Library – as the Sitka Public Library was then known - was the first library she went to and where she got her first library card.
“We lived a couple of blocks away and it was the first place I was allowed to walk to by myself and check out my books, which made me feel very grown up,” she said. “We (she and sister Chandler) did the summer reading program every year. And when I was older this is where I checked out a lot of my favorite books that were super important to me as a teenager. A lot of them came from the teen collection, and a lot of them we still see every day.”
O’Connell earned her undergraduate degree in history from The Evergreen State College and is working on her master’s degree in library science.
She said she doesn’t know which books she’ll want to “send correspondence to” in the Sitka Reads interactive project but has a few in mind.
“I have lots of thoughts about who it could be and it’s making me want to re-read some of my favorites that I haven’t read in a while,” O’Connell said. “It changes how you feel about a book depending on when you read it and how you were feeling when you read it. So I’m still brainstorming.”
O’Connell is hoping to find a way to share the responses from those willing, anonymously or not, through social media or a display at the library.
“We want people to interact to get to read what other people think,” she said. “And I think that’s part of the fun. TBD on what it will look like, but the more responses we get - we’ll just figure out the best way to share those.”
Those wanting a copy of “Dear Fahrenheit 451” can check it out at the library. O’Connell said she and others can reach out to other libraries if the two dozen copies here disappear. The book is also available for checking out on the Libby app, and holds can be placed.
“If we had so many people we ran out of copies – that would be awesome – we would find a way to get you one,” she said.
The book is currently out of print, and required some hustle on the part of the library staff to amass the 25 available here, including some that arrived from England.
Funds for the 100th celebration came in through the Adult Spelling Bee, private donations, Friends of the Sitka Public Library, last year’s book challenge, and donations for books taken from the book cart at the library.
