“I do love secondhand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest. The day Hazlitt came he opened to "I hate to read new books," and I hollered "Comrade!" to whoever owned it before me.”Helene Hanff book 84, Charing Cross RoadSource: 84, Charing Cross Road
“I love inscriptions on flyleaves and notes in margins, I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned, and reading passages someone long gone has called my attention to.”Helene Hanff book 84, Charing Cross RoadSource: 84, Charing Cross Road
“It looks too new and pristine ever to have been read by anyone else, but it has been: it keeps falling open at the most delightful places as the ghost of its former owner points me to things I've never read before.”Helene Hanff book 84, Charing Cross RoadSource: 84, Charing Cross Road
“It's against my principles to buy a book I haven't read, it's like buying a dress you haven't tried on.”Helene Hanff book 84, Charing Cross RoadSource: 84, Charing Cross Road
“I don't browse in bookshops, I browse in libraries, where you can take a book home and read it, and if you like it you go to a bookshop and buy it.”Helene Hanff book 84, Charing Cross RoadSource: 84, Charing Cross Road