Daren
I am not familiar with this author, but when a GR friend read it recently it sounded intriguing, and I noticed almost everyone has read this, so thought I better get a copy and read it! Noted as a book for book lovers, and a charming story - it certainly lives up to both of those.
I don't intent to give much away - it is a slim book, read fairly easily in a handful of hours. This is a book of letters (fancy people would call it an epistolary story (of non fiction)), the majority of which are between the author and a man working in a bookstore.
The author, living in New York, sees an advertisement for a bookshop in London 'antiquarian booksellers' specialising in out-of-print books, so she writes in the hope of obtaining some reasonably priced books. This commences twenty years (from 1949 to 1969) of written communication between the shop employee and the author, cataloguing their interactions and conversations. It explains the books requested, the books provided and move steadily from a formal communication to warmer letters of authentic friendship.
There is much to like about this quick to read book. Referred to as a love-story - it is certainly a platonic love story, and those of us who are familiar with American and British sensibilities will have a chuckle at both the sassy script writer and the reserved bookseller.
4 stars
I am not familiar with this author, but when a GR friend read it recently it sounded intriguing, and I noticed almost everyone has read this, so thought I better get a copy and read it! Noted as a book for book lovers, and a charming story - it certainly lives up to both of those.
I don't intent to give much away - it is a slim book, read fairly easily in a handful of hours. This is a book of letters (fancy people would call it an epistolary story (of non fiction)), the majority of which are between the author and a man working in a bookstore.
The author, living in New York, sees an advertisement for a bookshop in London 'antiquarian booksellers' specialising in out-of-print books, so she writes in the hope of obtaining some reasonably priced books. This commences twenty years (from 1949 to 1969) of written communication between the shop employee and the author, cataloguing their interactions and conversations. It explains the books requested, the books provided and move steadily from a formal communication to warmer letters of authentic friendship.
There is much to like about this quick to read book. Referred to as a love-story - it is certainly a platonic love story, and those of us who are familiar with American and British sensibilities will have a chuckle at both the sassy script writer and the reserved bookseller.
4 stars