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A review by nostalgia_reader
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett
3.0
I was expecting a relatively large tome (digital tome, since I ironically read this as an ebook from the library...) of standard nonfiction, a biography of this "man who loved books too much.
Instead, I got a memoir of interviewing a rare book thief and various rare bookshop owners, and a mini-history of book collecting. Pretty safe to say, this was the opposite of what I was expecting.
Although this casual, and sometimes partially off-topic, approach discouraged me a tad bit, I still loved this book and the quirky history that it discusses. It's quite a short book, and I devoured it in a few days.
The author focuses on telling the story of a rare book thief, actually interviewing him and discussing his drive to acquire rare books by any illegal means. She also interviews many bookstore owners who have been targeted by the thief and/or are doing their part to prevent rare book theft, and provides some short history of book theft throughout the ages. Lots of interesting observations on all fronts of the topic.
Bartlett does interject a lot of personal stories (related to her interviews and research) into the narrative, and she seemed shocked, in many instances, that book collecting was a "thing" and an "obsessive thing" at that. She acknowledged her love of books, but seemed to think that collecting them was weird and pointless. I'm not against the author of a book on books objecting to the concept of collecting books, but I also felt she was adamant about saying, essentially, "These people are crazy, and I have to counteract that by saying I totally don't get it." A little off-putting, the main reason for the fifth star getting knocked off the rating.
If anything, this is more of a general history of rare book theft, with a focus on Gilkey, the thief that the author interviews, NOT a mostly focused biography of ONE thief as the title suggests.
Regardless of these pet peeves and nit picks, the book was informative, fun to read, and easy to relate to. Of course, that relation was towards the book thief himself, which I'm sure many people will find incriminating. But if you collect books to any extent, you'll most likely see yourself relating to Gilkey's obsession with books... just not the theft part ;)
Instead, I got a memoir of interviewing a rare book thief and various rare bookshop owners, and a mini-history of book collecting. Pretty safe to say, this was the opposite of what I was expecting.
Although this casual, and sometimes partially off-topic, approach discouraged me a tad bit, I still loved this book and the quirky history that it discusses. It's quite a short book, and I devoured it in a few days.
The author focuses on telling the story of a rare book thief, actually interviewing him and discussing his drive to acquire rare books by any illegal means. She also interviews many bookstore owners who have been targeted by the thief and/or are doing their part to prevent rare book theft, and provides some short history of book theft throughout the ages. Lots of interesting observations on all fronts of the topic.
Bartlett does interject a lot of personal stories (related to her interviews and research) into the narrative, and she seemed shocked, in many instances, that book collecting was a "thing" and an "obsessive thing" at that. She acknowledged her love of books, but seemed to think that collecting them was weird and pointless. I'm not against the author of a book on books objecting to the concept of collecting books, but I also felt she was adamant about saying, essentially, "These people are crazy, and I have to counteract that by saying I totally don't get it." A little off-putting, the main reason for the fifth star getting knocked off the rating.
If anything, this is more of a general history of rare book theft, with a focus on Gilkey, the thief that the author interviews, NOT a mostly focused biography of ONE thief as the title suggests.
Regardless of these pet peeves and nit picks, the book was informative, fun to read, and easy to relate to. Of course, that relation was towards the book thief himself, which I'm sure many people will find incriminating. But if you collect books to any extent, you'll most likely see yourself relating to Gilkey's obsession with books... just not the theft part ;)