"I love inscriptions on flyleafs 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."
Having grown up in a city that prides itself on its reading but has precious few libraries, I have always been an avid browser of second-hand bookshops. Mint fresh new books were always an expensive option and I ended up having a collection of treasured second-hand copies of my most liked authors. P G Wodehouse, George Bernard Shaw, Jane Austen ...all of them and more held pride of place on my bookshelf. Necessity of having to buy previously owned books soon turned to a passion as I found myself increasingly drawn to the tiny notes written in the margins of the well-thumbed pages. I would read what the previous owners had written ,there was a strange bond there as they had loved the same book that I had. Connections in life come up in so many ways.
Imagine my surprise and joy when I came across a very similar sentiment expressed so beautifully in the book and film '84 Charing Cross Road'. Helene Hanff writes these lines to Frank Doel, the book shop owner. A charming film, which was adapted from the equally charming book '84 Charing Cross Road'.
Having grown up in a city that prides itself on its reading but has precious few libraries, I have always been an avid browser of second-hand bookshops. Mint fresh new books were always an expensive option and I ended up having a collection of treasured second-hand copies of my most liked authors. P G Wodehouse, George Bernard Shaw, Jane Austen ...all of them and more held pride of place on my bookshelf. Necessity of having to buy previously owned books soon turned to a passion as I found myself increasingly drawn to the tiny notes written in the margins of the well-thumbed pages. I would read what the previous owners had written ,there was a strange bond there as they had loved the same book that I had. Connections in life come up in so many ways.
Imagine my surprise and joy when I came across a very similar sentiment expressed so beautifully in the book and film '84 Charing Cross Road'. Helene Hanff writes these lines to Frank Doel, the book shop owner. A charming film, which was adapted from the equally charming book '84 Charing Cross Road'.
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