Title: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much
Author: Allison Hoover Bartlett
Genre/Pages: Nonfiction/288
Publication: Riverhead Books; September 17, 2009
Rating: 4 BOOKMARKS
A riveting tale of one man’s obsession with rare books, another man’s unrelenting efforts to catch him, and the woman who documented it all.
Persistent lying and stealing. Check. Superficial charm. Check. Lack of remorse or inability to care about hurting others. Check. Narcissism and sense of extreme entitlement. Check and CHECK.
John Charles Gilkey could be the poster child for Antisocial Personality Disorder and he’s fixated on rare books. In him, Allison Hoover Bartlett finds an inconsistent and unreliable source who acts as her guide on a literary odyssey through the world of rare books and his obsession with possessing them through acts of fraud and theft.
Spending whole years researching Gilkey and Ken Sanders, the book dealer who made it his personal mission to catch him, Bartlett finds herself, at times, walking the fine line between right and wrong to get her story. This conflict actually made the work all the more authentic and exciting. Gilkey confides in her about crimes past and Bartlett wrangles with her conscience–should she report him and risk scaring him off, ending their professional relationship (and her research)?
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much details the world of rare books, making it seem enticing and almost seductive. Each collector’s hunt for the book, the crowning jewel of his or her collection, keeps the dealers in business. What used to be a rich, white man’s game is now seeing an influx of younger, more diverse collectors.
With colorful characters, steady pacing, tales of deception and illicit behavior, and dogged efforts to catch a criminal, The Man Who Loved Books Too Much is an exciting, educational, and thoroughly entertaining read. If you’re looking for a great nonfiction book for a challenge or just want a change of pace, I would recommend this book without hesitation. Many thanks to Lydia at Riverhead for this review copy!
Do you collect rare or first edition books? How about signed editions? I have a few signed books–Jodi Picoult came to my local library a few years ago and signed two books for me and I went to Megan McCafferty’s book signing a few years ago at B&N. I don’t have any rare or first edition books–the only old books I have are ones from my childhood that I keep for nostalgic reasons.
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