Allison Bartlett’s The Man Who Loved Books Too Much is a pretty misleading book title. The book follows the story of John Gilkey, who steals books because he thinks it would make him seem more refined and cultured; and Ken Sanders, a rare bookseller who actually loves books and plays the detective in helping to catch GIlkey. Really, Gilkey is a just a common book thief who uses credit card fraud to trick trusting booksellers. It would be more apt to title the book, “The Man Who Hoard Stolen Books”…or something to that effect.

The author unnecessarily inserts herself into the book and seems to sympathize with Gilkey, who is outwardly friendly to her but internally deceptive. On the other hand, she loses the trust of Sanders, after she details how she accompanied Gilkey to another rare book store which he has stolen from in the past (now why would you antagonize a bookseller like that?).

Unfortunately, in the book world, book theft is not treated seriously by the authorities, so the members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (with Sanders at the helm of the investigation) have to take it upon themselves to obtain justice.

Incidentally, I actually picked up this book from Sanders’ bookstore in Salt Lake City, and I wish the book had focused more on Sanders who seems to be more interesting figure. I bumped up a star just because the book does delve into the world of rare books. However, this really should have remained as a journal article as there was a lot of fluff, and the piece should have maintained more objectivity, considering that the author is a journalist herself.