DD 086-090.999 (Tony) 84 Charing Cross Road (090 Han)

By Helene Hanff
While not the edition I read, this is an image of a more current edition's cover of the book. The image was found from an Italian web site

I really enjoy the genre of books I would title "correspondence books". These books include: Beverly Cleary's "Dear Mr. Henshaw", C.S Lewis' "Screwtape Letters", Ted L. Nancy's "Letters From a Nut", and Don Novello's numerous Lazlo Toth volumes. "84 Charing Cross Road" would fit into the genre of "Correspondence books" with one small exception. Cleary and Lewis' books are works of fiction; while Nancy and Novello's concepts are the literary equivilant of prank phone calls. Hanff's story is 100% true.

Also, it was the only thing available in this category of our Dewey project! Hillsborough had zip, zilch, nada in the 086-090.999 category. Where as the Chapel Hill branch had (thankfully)two books in this slot: "84 Charing Cross Road" and... another copy of "84 CCR", only without a dust jacket.

I chose the dustjackted edtion.

"84 Charing Cross Road" cronicles a three decades long friendship between noted author and script writer Helen Hanff from New York City and the used booksellers of Marks & Co., located in London England. (Do I need to make you guess of the book stores address?)

Starting October 5, 1949, with a Yankee Doodle request for "clean secondhand copies of books" under $5.(page 1), Hanff and the various British companie's employees write and become friends. An amazing fact I did not know was how much hardship England had to go through rebuilding after World War II, that they were restricted to less than 1 pound of meat per day. The author becomes aware of this fact and begins to send holiday care packages of ham, beef, and tongue to her new friends from across the pond. Tongue aside, Hanff quickly becomes the darling customer of the Marks & Co. staff. However the focus of the book is her relationship with the person and family of one Frank Doel.
Warning: Spoiler alert!!!!

The relationship is not only stictly plantonic, it's the world's longest pairing of penpals. That's right, throughout the whole book, Hanff pines over visiting England, saves money for a trip, even sends friends who do manage to visit to shop at Marks. But never To the two meet face to face.

In fact, Frank dies. End Spoiler Alert!

Now, remember when I not only said this book was different in stylings of Correspondence Books; but that it was the only thing my libraries had. Well, "84 Charing Cross Road", is different in one other aspect. In terms of being the only thing available to read for a category, loyal readers may remember how much I hated the last book I was forced to read in this manner. Not so here!

This book was great! At a mere 95 pages, I wanted more. In fact, I don't think every note between Hanff and Doel is published in this tome, as there are huge gaps in the times of correspondence. For example, on page 66 Hanff writes the bookstore to inform them of a change of address in a letter dated "June 1, 1956". On page 67, a note from Marks & Co. informing the New Yorker of some books coming her way is dated "3rd May, 1957". So, unless the two really were busy, in comas, and had all of there next of kin kidnapped, I find it hard to believe further letters were not exchanged by the two parties.

Furthermore, I am very envious of Helene Hanff. She had several instances of writing requests for numerous so vague, even Alex Trebek has never heard of, and receives them post rate crica 1949 in less than a week. (And this is snail mail!!!) I, on the other hand, order a set of comic books from a guy 2 states away on Ebay and it takes me a week just for the guy to congratulate me (via EMAIL!!!) on winning his auction. Where's the justice in that?

No wait... It's not a lack of justice, but a lack of quality customer service. Gone are those days. Oh, to live in the 1950's!
Poster for a 1987 BBC movie that was made based on the book, starring Anthony Hopkins. Note the postmarks on the poster. They are similar to those on dustjacket and interior of the edition I read

DD 081-085.999 (Tony) The Darwin Awards II (081 NOR)

by Wendy Northcutt
After having read the War and Peace equvilent of a bathroom reader, I decided to go with something small. I had already read volume one of The Darwin Awards during various trips to Hillsborough's local hangout: the Carolina Coffee Cafe So when I had the chance to read the second volume for this category of our Dewey project, I readily picked it up.

The Darwin Awards are tongue in cheek awards given out to people who are so stupid, they help benefit the future of humanities survival, but removing themselves from the gene pool. Most entries are about people who end up killing themselves doing dumb things like trying to blow up their ex-wife's house or looking inside the mouth of a lit pyro-technic display. Doing something less than brilliant and in return sterilizing yourself count as award winners. Near death experiences are only granted "honorable mention" status, though most of the stuff done in this book, is less than honorable. And for fans of Urban Legends, check out the sections of the same name spread throughout this book.

Those wanting to enjoy the fatal exploits of morons should beware: <THIS BOOK HAS A HIDDEN AGENDA! Wendy Northcutt, the author of this book, and the website which began the awards, also doubles as a graduate in molecular biology. So almost every chapther begins with an essay in evolution. As an opened minded beleiver in creationism (who went to a private Christian school his whole life), I enjoyed reading about the others sides view of why evolution is "better" than creationism. Hey, I even believe in adaptation evolution (in which you put a sphinx cat family in the artic and 10 generations later, the descendants end up being furry little snow cats.) I just did not appreciate the authors attitude that it's her view and nothing else.

So if you are a closed minded creationist, this book is probably not for you. But, if you still want to learn about stupid ways to kill youself or painfully dumb sterilzation techniques, then do yourself a favor and skip not only the lettering writing campaign to all of the Darwin award website and publishers sponsers; but skip the intro essays to each chapther.

Oh, and one more thing! With this book published in 2001, many of the Urban Legnds in this book have been covered on the Discovery Channel show Mythbusters. So for updates on the validity of tales like Barbequed SCUBA diver and the leagend of Lawnchair Larry, check your local listings to see them put to the test.