The Man Who Loved Books Too Much

by Allison Hoover Bartlett
This is a true story about an American man who is a compulsive rare book thief.  The author has interviewed the thief.  She also interviews rare book sellers including one person who had the voluntary position of Head of Security for the ABAA (Antiquarian Booksellers Assoc. of America), who became obsessed with tracking down the thief and "bringing him to justice".

The story was interesting for the story of the thief and what fuelled his compulsion -- the need to be respected for his "class".  He seemed to feel that it was okay to steal and hurt other people in order to try to create his collection.  The author admits she had trouble trying to understand how his mind worked and how he rationalized his actions, for e.g. once he had sold an item he stole he no longer felt any responsibility regarding the theft.

The other part of the story, the bookseller's attempt to identify and capture the thief was also interesting as was the insight into the world or rare book sellers and collectors and what drives their passion.  Thrre was also some discussion of some of the questionable operators and tactics utlilzed by less than honest people over the centuries.

It was interesting to read about why people can become so passionate about books and the different ways this passion is manifest.  The author, like rare book collectors, is conviced of the physical appeal of a book to the reader/collector. However, current stats show that ebook sales are outstripping book sales so obviously not everyone, especially young people, are not as besotted with physical books -- is that something to be sad about?  The author points out that many collectors don't even read the books they collect -- what's the point of that??  Just bragging rights? Flaunting your wealth? class? an investment?  I would think that if I was collecting precious books I would want to be reading/savouring them.  She also talks about the covers being the appeal factor.  I agree with that, the one thing I don't like in ebooks is that you can't really appreciate the art of the covers.  However, CD artwork replaced album covers and now i-tunes has totally eliminated covers.

I enjoyed the book, now I am off to read a mystery about a bookseller who investigates crimes re: rare books.