84,CHARING CROSS ROAD

What do I say about this book!!!?I read it in a few hours yesterday and found it to be utterly charming.
I am so happy to have found a book which talks about the love of books.

84,Charing Cross Road is written in epistolary format.The only other book I have read so far in this format is Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' and while that was macabre and somber ,this turned out to be absolutely endearing.It is just a series of letters spanned over twenty years written by Helene Hanff and posted to 84, Charing Cross Road in London to a lovely little book store Marks and Co.The letters are replied to by Frank Doel,chief buyer of Marks and Co.Hanff, is in search of obscure classics and British literature titles she had been unable to find in New York and therefore orders them from this antiquated book store in London and a lovely friendship develops between her and Frank Doel and all the other people working at Marks and Co.Helene also sends Christmas packages,birthday gifts and food parcels along with the letters and her kindness and thoughtfulness are appreciated by everyone especially at a time when there is a food shortage in London post world war 2.

I loved the way Hanff talks about books.She says ,she does not buy a book she has not already read and she refuses to read fiction which according to her "is a book about something that didn't happen to someone who doesn't exist".I found that very different to the way I read or choose my books,but then I am not Helene, so I let it pass.

Frank Doel is very proper in his replies to the letters,in the manner of the English but he just warms up to Helene over the course of many years.

There are so many lovely bits I liked about this book.Like the way she talks about books, as if they are living things.When she writes back to say a book has arrived she says "The book arrived safely, the Stevenson is so fine it embarrasses my orange-crate bookshelves, I'm almost afraid to handle such soft vellum and heavy cream coloured pages. Being used to the dead-white paper and stiff cardboardy covers of American books, I never knew a book could be such a joy to the touch."

Also "I love inscriptions on flyleaves and notes in margins, I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned, and reading passages someone long gone has called my attention to."That echoes my thoughts exactly.

I loved Helene's feisty spirit and her passion for reading.The book describes how two people from different sides of the Atlantic Ocean can bond over letters and forge a friendship for a lifetime.I was curious up to the end and wanted to know if Helene finally makes it to London to visit the bookstore but the novel ends without telling us that.

However the good news is...Ive got a kind of Omnibus in which there is another book THE DUCHESS OF BLOOMSBURY STREET,which I am yet to read in which Helene does visit the bookstore.I am looking forward to reading it and finding out about her visit soon.

I wonder if the movie is as good.Hope to get a chance to watch it soon.