"I have known men to hazard their fortunes, go long journeys halfway about the world, forget friendships, even lie, cheat, and steal, all for the gain of a book." A.S.W. Rosenbach
Most of the nonfiction I read is either about food or books, so when I received an unsolicited copy of The Man who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett some months back, I thought that here was an unsolicited review copy I just might read. The outstanding cover design and the hook of a subtitle like "The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession" helped a little too.
What would you do for the love of a good book? John Gilkey will commit credit card fraud, write bad checks and engage in other forms of outright theft from both rare book dealers and libraries. But not for profit. He does not sell these books as most "bibliothieves" do but keeps them for his own collection. No less driven, Ken Sanders, rare book dealer and self-professed "bibliodick," will stop at nothing to catch one of the most successful and brazen thieves to plague the rare book industry.
Journalist Allison Hoover Bartlett inserts herself between these two very intense men in this crime narrative that zips along like fiction in order to tell the infrequently heard story of rare book theft. What she discovers is far more than a simple crime-chase-capture scenario. The book becomes a glimpse into the world of rare books, bibliomaniacs and even bibliokleptomaniacs, and a series of insightful observations about the book as object and how its possession reflects upon its owner.
This book will be a quick and enjoyable read for most who have ever held a romantic attachment to a book, that understand the connection between book and self-identification. For those of us that hold on to books from our pasts and those of us that seek out those physical manifestations of our own histories, tastes and intellects in paper and ink. And for those who appreciate peeks into the inner workings of the book trade, of course.
The only problem I had with this book was that I have read too many books about books, and it did not contain much new content for me. I did appreciate that this was a book about book thievery as this is a less-discussed subject, and certainly the specifics of Gilkey's story were unknown to me. I also think that this book would be a great jumping off point to reading books about books. And the bibliography in the back of the book is an excellent list for book lovers and contains some of my favorites.
- Among the Gently Mad; A Gentle Madness; Patience and Fortitude; and A Splendor of Letters by Nicholas Basbanes
- To Have and To Hold by Phillip Blom
- Nabokov's Butterfly: And Other Stories of Great Authors and Books by Rick Gekoski
- The Anatomy of Bibliomania by Holbrook Jackson
- Book Talk: Essays on Books, Booksellers, Collecting, and Special Collections by Robert H. Jackson and Carol Zeman Rothkopf
- Collecting: An Unruly Passion: Psychological Perspectives by Wener Muensterberger
- A Passion for Books: Book Lover's Treasury of Stories, Humor, Love and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring for, and Appreciating Books by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan
- Bouillabaisse for Bibliophiles by William Targ
- ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter
Kristin M. from We Be Reading wins!