For the Love of Books Book

Ahhhh...books. They are wonderful...especially books about other books. Even better are books about books that are rare and valuable. These books give me the happies.

There were chunks of this story that serenaded my growing bibliomania off its feet like Cyrano de Bergerac beneath Roxane's window. I love books. I love them for their minds and I love them for their bodies and over the past few years, I've begun collecting first editions of my favorite novels. I get tremendous enjoyment from it as I am a collector at heart, like my recent acquisition of a signed, 1st of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter and Perdido Street Station (both on my all time favorite list). *does quick happy dance while thinking of them*

So when the true-crime story, The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, details the book thief, John Gilkey, walking through rare book shows (something I have yet to do) and describing beautiful first editions of works like:
H.P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror,
H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds,
John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath,
Vladimir Nabakov's Lolita, and even
Dr. Suess' The Cat in the Hat (worth over $8500 by the way), my collecting cockles warmed and my chops salivated as my insides revved up and headed for an earth-shattering bibliogasm.

Yeah...its a problem. There were definite waves of envy and lust that washed over me and I can certainly understand the tug of need for acquiring such rarities. Heaven for me would certainly include a number of large buildings filled with


That's the good part of this story.

However, apart from the incredibly compelling and O-O O-face causing recitation of rare first editions and their stratospheric prices, the balance of the book was really Meh to average at best. The writing isn't bad, but it comes across like by the numbers journalism, which decently conveys information but very little else. It's all surface. No emotion, no insight, no depth...just the facts ma'am.

That was not my biggest problem, however. For me, that dubious honor goes to the main character, John Gilkey. This waste of breath is a scummy, narcissistic sociopath who defines the term disprickable asstard. He is as unlikeable and repugnant a non-violent criminal as you are likely to come across.

This guy remorselessly steals valuable rare books from mom and pop book dealers who can barely make ends meet and considers it his right to do so because "it is unfair that I can't afford them on my own." Are you kidding me, you psychotic nutbag? He continuously points the finger at everyone but himself and says that he is forced to steal because the mean dealers make the book "too expensive" for him to afford otherwise.

Now, being so smitten with rare books (as I'm sure many reading this are as well), you might think that John would find a sympathetic ear was those who "share his love" for books. No, he's an asshole. A major asshole. A Major General asshole in the Army of Assholes. He steals things and he hurts good people in the process.

He's a worthless human stain.

Even his love of books is deformed. He doesn't even read them or have any interest in reading them. They are just some twisted "self-centered" mechanism to make himself feel more refined and classy. His reason for "owning" them is to be able to appear as a gentlemen. "Hey, I own a rare book, aren't I cultured." The guy makes my stomach turn like a pinwheel in a hurricane and all I could think was how violated I would feel if any of my favorite books were stolen.

Okay, let me briefly summarize the book before my rant against Gilkey goes nuclear (sorry if I'm too late for that). The story details the author's interviews with Gilkey who, for some reason or another, opens up and describes his history of book theft. He explains how most of his crimes were perpetrated using bad checks and stolen credit card numbers that he obtained working retail.

We learn of his childhood and how his family were a bunch a thieving scumbags as well and how it was his love of comic-books that got him interested in books and book collecting. One other thread of the book follows Ken Sanders, a rare book dealer and amateur detective who is the volunteer security chief for the ABAA (the Antiquarian Booksellers of America). Ken knows Gilkey is scum and is trying to bring him back to justice when he steals again.

Overall, if you are fascinated by the rare book world and love to read about valuable editions, this is worth a read. It's for that reason that I am calling this an "I like it" though just barely. If it wasn't for that, this would be just another two star earning mild disappointment.

2.5 to 3.0 stars. Recommended (for bibliophiles and bibliomaniacs).