Book Report: 84 Charing Cross Road

      4 Comments on Book Report: 84 Charing Cross Road

I am trying to remember if I’ve ever read 84 Charing Cross Road before. I’d seen the movie, years and years ago; it’s a wonderful movie, and YHB highly recommends it. If possible, go back and time and see the movie before seeing Silence of the Lambs; it’s best to not have the stray image of a psychotic cannibal behind the well-mannered clerk. It will also help you enjoy other Anthony Hopkins roles, including the psychotic cannibal, if you start with one of the quiet ones.

Anyway, the book. It’s lovely, but surprisingly slight. It left me unsatisfied. That, perhaps, is the fault of the movie, but still.

I have been to Charing Cross Road, made the pilgrimage to 84, where there was a Burger King, if I remember correctly, and later a wine bar or something. There were a handful of wonderful used bookstores in the Charing Cross Road, and another couple of shops for new books that were wonderful as well, although beyond my pocketbook. Of course, the point of the book (and the movie) is all in not going to London, which in honesty is a magnificent and powerful pastime that is somewhat spoiled by going to London. London is wonderful, don’t get me wrong, and if somebody will pay for us to spend three months there, I’d take it greedily and ache for more, but not going to London, oh, one could spend a whole lifetime doing that, and the ache there is ever so much more pleasurable than the other.

Plus, you simply can’t get a good cup of tea in London.

chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.

4 thoughts on “Book Report: 84 Charing Cross Road

  1. Michael

    Wait, Anthony Hopkins was actually a psychotic cannibal in Silence of the Lambs? I thought it was all a frame job. You’ve changed my whole view of that movie.

    Reply

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