Reading response of 《84 Charing Cross Road》

The content of the book are just letters from 1949 to 1969, mainly between the author Helene Hanff and Frank, about the trade on old books between an American lady and a bookseller working in a bookstore that was on Charing Road in England. In the letters, there is the sincerity to share ideas about book and lives, the care between people as well as the generosity to send things…Thanks to those account, true feeings seep into the book and it reveal to warm your heart when you are reading these letters. 

The author Helen Hanff is a super lazy lady, who prefers to send package beyond ocean rather than walk few steps to go into a bookstore to buy books. She is also a lively and lovely girl, joking around, complaining about terrible books and writers. Moreover, she is a warm-hearted and considerate lady who generously sends large amount of food to England to express gratitude to and help the people in bookstore when they are going through a hard time. After that, most of the workers make friends with Helen. Apart from finding books for Helen, they will tell Helen about their lives and send lovely photos to her. All of them are always inviting Helen to have a tour in England but Helen hasn’t got a chance not even have a look at the bookstore herself before the bookstore shuts down. The letters filled with sincerity weave an ideal world where people treat each other sincerely, help each other and are always hopeful, which make you feel happy and comfortable to read all of the letters. 

Helene and Frank write most of the letters and both of them are really knowledgeable as well as have a good taste for books. In letters they also exchange ideas about thoughts and books, on account of which, this book is called the book lovers’ bible. As I don’t know much about English Literature, so I don’t quite understand some of the thoughts (Maybe after doing a research on English Literature, I will read the book again.), but I really have a new idea about old books and how to read books.

I do love secondhand books that open to the page some pre owner read oftenest.

It looks too new and pristine ever to have been read by anyone else, but is has been: it keeps falling open at the most delightful places as the ghost of its former owner points me the things I’ve never read before.

 I will have mine till the day I die – I die in the knowledge that I’m leaving it behind for someone else to love. I shall sprinkle pale pencil marks through it pointing out the best passages to some booklover yet unborn.

Through the pale pencil marks, the page where the book keeps falling open, the footnotes, the pre owners can exchange ideas with you, not in the same period of time as your are, which turns reading the book into a fantastic time journey.

I personally can’t think of anything less sacrosanct than a bad book or even a mediocre book. 

Cups are used to contain water while books are used to contain soul. It is really not responsible to publish a bad book or even a mediocre book. We also need to be responsible for what we write though sometimes we are forced to write on some boring topics. 

They read best sellers. They get through them as fast as possible. The never read anything a second time so they don’t remember it a year later.

Many people read books like this. They feel proud about the quantity of the famous books they have read. They read as fast as possible without a profound understanding and never touch the book again. Real reading is a conversation with author in a world lit up by words. You share feelings and thoughts and discuss in details. Furthermore, if you really like this book, you will read it many times subsequently to skim, to review, to recapture, to light up your mind, to get new ideas.

Through this book Helene also passes a strong desire for going to England and looking for English literature to all the readers:

A newspaperman I know, who was stationed in London during the war says tourists go to England with preconceived notions, so they always find exactly what they go looking for. I told him I’d go looking for the England of English literature, and he said:

“Then it’s there.”

If you want read this book, you'd better read the origin version. As the letters in the book actually written by different people Helene, Frank, Nora and so on, therefore the book has different writing styles, which is very unique, but when it coms to translation, it may only have the writing style of the interpreter.