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What Members Thought
What a delightful read! This book has been on my TBB list for several years, but could never find a copy locally. A local used book store is in the process of moving and holding clearance sales every few weeks. While browsing one such table, I spied a box marked “books about books” and tucked inside were two copies of this book! So glad I was finally able to lay hands on a copy. Definitely a keeper!
Nov 13, 2020:
Enjoyed this second reading as much as the first. Highly recommend.
Nov 13, 2020:
Enjoyed this second reading as much as the first. Highly recommend.
A wonderful charming series of letters between a New York screenwriter and an English book seller. Makes me want to write letter again. Also wish I had a wonderful leather bound copy of this. Because the letters contain only crumbs of details my imagination got to run wild with what Frank and Helen look like and they worlds they inhabit.
I will definitely reread this book.
I will definitely reread this book.
Aug 23, 2019
Sarah
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
memoir-and-bio,
england
I can't remember how I came across this title and now don't know why I haven't read it earlier! On the surface it is an epistolary memoir between an American writer searching for books and a British bookseller who is sending them. Their correspondence covers almost 20 years, from a tightly rationed post-war London through the crowing of the Queen, and beyond.
Helene and Frank do talk about books, but their relationship is so much more than that, life changing wouldn't be an exaggeration. (view s ...more
Helene and Frank do talk about books, but their relationship is so much more than that, life changing wouldn't be an exaggeration. (view s ...more
Well, this was lovely. Do yourself a favor and sit down for 2 hours to read it. Useful things I did not realize until I had the book:
1.) It's incredibly short
2.) It's not fiction. These are real letters Hanff collected and published.
3.) 95% of the books discussed hold no interest for me, and that didn't detract in the slightest.
Sometimes Hanff would annoy me with her sass, but then I'd remember that she was a lady living on her own in NYC in 1949&c, and making a living as a writer. Sass. Earned. ...more
1.) It's incredibly short
2.) It's not fiction. These are real letters Hanff collected and published.
3.) 95% of the books discussed hold no interest for me, and that didn't detract in the slightest.
Sometimes Hanff would annoy me with her sass, but then I'd remember that she was a lady living on her own in NYC in 1949&c, and making a living as a writer. Sass. Earned. ...more
I stumbled across this on the shelves at the library while looking for another book. I grabbed it because it was pretty slim, and I've been on the lookout for a book under 100 pages for the Book Riot Read Harder challenge - 97 pages! w00t! (Bonus: it was also published in 1970, which could also take care of the challenge, "read a book published the decade you were born.")
I had vaguely heard of this book, but had very little idea of what it was about and deliberately tried not to read about it be ...more
I had vaguely heard of this book, but had very little idea of what it was about and deliberately tried not to read about it be ...more
Absolutely charming. I’d love to go back and read some of the books mentioned. At first I didn’t realize it was non-fiction! What a lovely, lovely read!
Oct 14, 2017
Melissa Wiebe
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
nonfiction,
2017
A short book of letters. Was very charming.
Dec 13, 2015
Julie C.
marked it as to-read
Aug 14, 2017
gremlinkitten
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
autobiography-memoir
Aug 29, 2018
Tara Nichols
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
finished-in-2018,
well-written-feel-good
