(no subject)

[shinytoaster]

I get very jealous when I know someone of my accquaintance is reading a book I love. I'm envious of them for experiencing something beautiful for the first time.

Anyway, my point in saying that is by way of getting round to saying that I'm about 40 pages into 84 Charing Cross Road and it's perfect. I'd been meaning to read it since dinosaurcostume found me a second-hand copy of Apple of my Eye just before the first time I went to New York, which was written in the 70s and is very out of date now, but is still probably the finest book about that city ever written. So, 84 Charing Cross Road is just as beautiful and I'm experiencing it for the first time and it's a very good feeling. You turn a page and you can feel yourself in a poky brownstone apartment in the midst of a grimy, late-1940s winter more completely than you can feel your current surroundings. This is the power of Helene Hanff's prose.

And I loved the Half Blood Prince, but after that, this is like some sweet little sorbet to refresh your palate.

Comments

[earth-magic.livejournal.com]

85 Charing Cross Road is a lovely book. It's been a while since I read it, but it has always stuck in my mind.

[goneril.livejournal.com]

Did you see the film was on the other night? I watched the start of it but had to tape the rest, since it was late. *getting old*