When you talk about classic books, when you talk about beloved books, no book comes to mind faster than 84, Charing Cross Road. Published in 1970, this is the correspondence between New York writer Helene Hanff and the staff of a bookstore in London. 

A devoted reader and a finicky collector of books, Hanff sees an advertisement for Marks & Co., a British antiquarian bookseller willing to send books across the pond. She immediately sends them a letter listing some books she'd been looking for and hadn't been able to find in New York City. The are able to accommodate her and send her order to her, prompting a unique friendship that spans two decades and 3,500 miles. 

What makes this remarkable is that this is 1949. The British are under rations because of the war, and Hanff, a freelance writer and single woman in New York City is struggling just to make ends meet. But as Marks & Co. continue to find the books she wants, a relationship develops between Hanff and many of the staff members there, but most specifically with bookseller Frank Doel. 

The friendship that grows out of their mutual love of books is moving and powerful, and it brings laughter and tears. From the boxes of food Hanff is able to send overseas to augment their rations to her ranting at them when they use the pages of books to wrap her purchases, from the times she tries to make it to visit only to have something go wrong at the last minute to the letter where she lets loose about the gall of Frank sending her an abridged copy of Samuel Pepys' diary, this book doesn't hold back from any emotion. 

A short book that packs a massive wallop, 84, Charing Cross Road is a must read for any book lover. That is not hyperbole. It is required reading. There are no excuses. If you haven't read it (or at least watched the lovely movie starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins), then buy this book and read it immediately, and again and again and again.