This was a re read for me. Being my late mother’s favourite book, having snaffled a beautiful newish edition at an op shop, being a snail mail enthusiast and book lover and being on holidays I raced through this. An absolutely charming book. I don’t believe I have read the sequel which I am about to start straight away. ( )

One of my favorite books of all time. Whenever I re-read this book I also re-read the sequel, since to me they really do have to be enjoyed together. ( )

Well, I just loved this book. Loved in a way that made me want to hug it when I finished it.

My edition contains both 84 Charing Cross Road and The Dutchess of Bloomsbury Street - I don't know if this is standard or not, but the two feel like they ought to be part I and part II of the same book. 84 Charing Cross Road is by a mile, my favorite; Ms. Hanff is funny and irreverent and she gives poor Mr. Doel such a hard time and he's just such a gentleman.

The second half made me feel like the most classless twit; all those incredible experiences I didn't take the time to have when I was in the UK that I absolutely should have. She makes me want to go back and do it properly. I was hoping the book would end with her moving to London but instead, the story ends exactly the way it should.

I just loved this book.


[PopSugar 2015 Reading Challenge: A book that came out the year you were born.] ( )

This is not your ordinary love story but it is the kind of romance every bibliophile dreams. An epistolary memoir that spans decades of transatlantic correspondence between writer Helene Hanff and Marks & Co antiquarian bookseller, Frank Dole. Not only does the book-loving feels very validating but to read about someone who cares enough about second hand, leather bound, and first edition books where descriptions and disappointments, whilst surrounded with everyday life, are laced in humour and wit is magnificently sweeping and sweet. But this is not only for the love of books but also for the love of second hand bookshops and its people. Both 84 Charing Cross Road and its sequel The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street pelt with bittersweet conclusions; and they're immensely touching for that.

To have bought this in a second hand bookshop with the bookseller saying that I would definitely love this and I should watch the film after is rather telling. I will never forget the old man's kind eyes as he handed me my change. I think, sometimes, that home is a feeling: the similar feeling I have when I open the door to my room or I get inside a bookshop and the scent of books greet me, or when I slump down the floor surrounded by them during spring cleaning but I feel it most vividly when I hold them in my hands and they take me to some place else to comfort and distance me from the sometimes ugly reality. And to share these with someone who shares the same inclination is unforgettable. ( )

When it arrived in the post, I peeked at the first page, as one does, to get a sense of it. Next thing I knew I was halfway through the book. I finished it almost in one sitting; which may well be the best way to read this exquisite gem - as something unexpected, sudden, and all at once. This has American exuberance meeting British reserve and developing, purely by letters, into a most perfect friendship.

Helene Hanff says a few times in her letters to her bookseller that she's not interested in most fiction, or in secondhand accounts. She wants the I-was-there stuff. This little book is exactly that, and it's perfect.