1+1+1 for 365 day 8: A love story about books

TODAY'S QUOTE:
"You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.”  - Paul Sweeney

TODAY'S BOOK:
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Something for bibliophiles, travellers and those who still enjoy the gentle art of letterwriting. This true story about transatlantic friendships that developed as the result of a simple trade enquiry about some books is also a reminder that small things matter and how kindness and simple courtesy affect our lives in many ways.  Furthermore it also tells us quite a bit about  London and New York at the time, although two of her later works go further and focus specifically on the those two cities as they were in the 1970s and 1980s respectively.

From the 1950s until the 1970s, Helen corresponded from New York with Frank Doel, the chief buyer of Marks & Co, an antiquarian bookseller in London.  By the time that she finally visited London, Frank had passed away, but

Helen met his wife and daughter and some of the other people with whom she had also formed friendships through their correpondence.

This was written long before the Internet changed forever the way we communicate with one another and before we could keep up to date instantly with friends anywhere in the world via Facebook, Skype, e-mail and other Internet-based applications.

The narrative consists mostly of letters, diary entries and teletype/telex.  Most of us no longer really write letters in long hand for the purpse of delivery via "snail mail". Few of us keep diaries although many of us have blogs (today's very public form of diary) and many would have no idea what teletype or telex was.  Those of us who still have a typewriter somewhere, keep it because it is a nice-looking antique or because we simply have not got around to throwing it away.

Yet like all good books, Helene Hanff's books don't lose their charm after all these years: her celebration of everyday things remind us that it does not take unlimited funds or opportunities to make life worthwhile - that the human spirit is fed by things like reading good books, making friends and being curious about the world you live in.

Incidentally, the books ordered by Helen over the years and discussed in 84 Charing Cross Road could make a good reading list in itself!

The book became a hit when it first appeared in the early 1970s and became popular once again in 1987 when made into a film starring Anne Bancroft, Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins.

You may also be interested Helen Hanff's other books. My volume of 84 Charing Cross Road is a in an edition that also includes her book on her visit to London (The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street) and three more that have found there way to my bookshelf:  Q's Legacy, Underfoot in Showbusiness and Apple of my Eye. I might return to one or more of them later, but in the meanwhile, enjoy reading - or re-reading 84 Charing Cross Road - a book which is as much a tribute to the love of books as it is the true story about a special friendship.


TODAY'S PICTURE

Writing about Helen Hanff's books also made me think of her home town,
 New York.I took this picture in the 1983.
The late afternoon sun was reflected in the then
Twin Towers of the WTC.

Picture & text: © Lee Labuschagne - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED