Categories: book-review
Tags: book review
Date: 09 May 2008 19:58:57
How about that, just like the buses - I hardly read anything non-work-related for ages then two books at once. 84 Charing Cross Road is of course a classic, but also a very short classic, so it only took an hour and a bit, and was a delightful way to end the evening last night. I've been meaning to read it for ages, but as it was the Ship of Fools book group read last month I finally got round to getting it (1p in Amazon marketplace - bargain, though I had to pay postage of course as well). It's made up of letters sent between Helene Hanff (an American writer) and the staff of the second hand bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Road from around 1950 until the end of the 60s, and the increasingly warm relationship that was built up between them, despite her never actually coming over to England until way after the shop had closed down (I believe the account of this visit is told in the sequel to the book, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, which forms the second half of the volume I got). It's a very gentle read, and shows both the post-war conditions in England (Helene is outraged by the post-war rationing in England so keeps sending them parcels of food and nylons and that sort of thing that they can't get easily), and shows how both Helene and Frank (the main correspondent from the shop) love books - not just the reading, but the whole experience - handling them, thinking about their history, the whole thing.
I really enjoyed the exchange where the shop send her a book as a gift with a separate card, and she tells them that they should have written in the leaf of the book instead, as that would increase its value for her, and how she loves looking at the markings that previous owners have left. It reminded me of an occasion (I hope Kerensa doesn't mind me relating this tale, I know she was rather embarrassed about it at the time) when Kerensa (for it was she!) returned a book she'd borrowed from me, full of apologies as she'd dropped it in a puddle getting out of a car and had to dry it on a radiator so it was a bit crinkly and wrinkly (aside: I know the feeling). She offered to buy me a shiny new copy, but I was quite happy to have it back as was, it was still perfectly readable and actually now had more character - even now, not that I've got it out to read for ages, every time I see it I think of her and smile, whereas if it was given back in pristine condition I would have forgotten all about lending it to her at all. I'm also hopeless at throwing books away - unless I hate them, in which case I'd pass them on to a charity shop, but even then I can usually tell from the blurb that I'll hate them so don't get it in the first place. I just love the look of bookcases overflowing with books, and love being anal about ordering them (alphabetical order, fiction there, travel writing here, biography over there sort of thing). And although I don't mind wrinkly crinkly books in general (and if I have a second hand one don't mind odd scrawled notes or whatever), I do also have some books (with big pictures in, generally!) where it's the looking and holding and smelling that's as much part of the wonderful experience as the reading, and I would be upset if I spilt tea over them!
Books are cool :)