Cambridge illustrated atlas of Book

As a cartomaniac, a librarian, and a history lover myself, this book seemed to be just the ticket for me. I loved the digressions into the science of maps, notable historic maps, mapmakers, historic map thieves, explorers, map collectors and the map trade.
However, I found the story of the map thief to be about as bland as the thief's own name. In fact, the author takes pains to illustrate that thief is a personification of his own name. His is a story not worthy of telling, except as a cautionary tale for all archivists, librarians, collectors and the like who might fall prey to low life vandals such as Bland. His story becomes even more tedious by the end, and then turns into a sentimental author's introspective.
I grew tired of the way the author always tries to tie the story of maps into the story of the map thief, as if everything about maps is somehow analogous to this repugnant protagnist. I also thought that the author's attempt to make the entire story applicable to himself, even to the point of drawing an analogy between his own life and that of the thief, as if his whole experience of researching the story of the map thief was actually a journey of self disovery, was pretty weak and contrived.
I think I would have rather read this book as two separate works--one a collection of newspaper clippings detailing the arrest of Mr. Bland and the subsequent crime investigation, and another as a brief history of all the varied aspects of the world of maps, including map crimes, of which this map thief's story would merely figure in as one egregious example, rather than as the focus of the entire work.