"It's My Favorite" Vol. 1

Hello lovely readers! Today marks the start of a very special new weekly feature here at Reading Ruby Tuesday, and I am SO excited about it! I am such a sentimental person, and I know first-hand how some of your favorite things can hold incredible stories, and give some sweet insight into peoples lives. Be sure to check back every Tuesday for a new story, and if you'd like to be featured, email me at dianakinnett@gmail.com! 


Our first interview comes from the lovely Kendal. It's hard to believe (*gulp*) that it's been about sixteen years since we became friends in Mrs. Lee's 5th grade class. After following Kendal's sweet blog, seeing her beautifully curated Danforth Village home, and enjoying her obvious soft spot for literature and all things vintage, I knew she'd have a great story for Volume 1! I hope you enjoy....

My name is Kendal Gerard and I blog about improvements to my tiny East End Toronto house at www.littlebungalow.net

1 - What is your favorite thing? 

It was really hard to choose one thing as my all-time "favourite" -- but I love the photograph that hangs in my foyer of Marks & Co. bookshop, which used to be located at 84 Charing Cross Road in London, England. This photograph is featured on the cover of a 2002 edition of my favourite book, 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, which was first published in the 1970s. The bookshop is no longer around (there's now a restaurant in that location), but lots of other dusty bookstores still line this street in London, which is a joy to explore with a coffee in hand.

2 - What makes it your favorite? 

I suppose the reasons are threefold: the photograph is a connection to my favourite book, it's a reminder of the wonderful months I spent in and around London, and it's hands down the most thoughtful gift I've ever been given!

3 - How did it become yours? 

When my husband and I first met in 2006, we read each other's favourite books in order to get to know each other better. I read The Perfect Mile and The Old Man and the Sea, and I forced 84 on him. So right from the beginning he knew this book was important to me -- so important I wouldn't even lend him one of my many copies (just in case we didn't work out and I never saw my book again!) One of the editions that I had in my library was a 2002 trade paperback edition that featured a photograph of the old bookshop taken by an Australian on the cover. For my 22nd birthday in 2007, my then-boyfriend took it upon himself to track down the owner of the original photograph and purchase the rights to reprint it. He even had it framed in museum glass so it would never fade in the sunlight. I was completely floored when I opened it!

4 - Is there any special story behind it? 

In 2005 I was lucky enough to complete a semester of my undergrad degree in a castle-cum-university just outside of London. I took an English Lit course called "Literature and Place," in which we read poems, short stories, and novels that all featured London in a big way -- Mrs. Dalloway, Oliver Twist, etc. Then, we'd take field trips to explore the streets (and alleys and fields and landmarks) described in the literature. We didn't read 84 Charing Cross Road in this class, but when I returned home to Kingston I was still so enamoured with my time in London that I sought out similar books. That's how I came across 84, which is a collection of the real letters mailed over a 20-year friendship between a bookseller in London and a writer in New York. I fell in love with the story and I started collecting different editions of the book as I came across them in flea markets and used bookstores. My husband took it one step further and, well...see Question 3.