So I finished reading The Man Who Loved Books Too Much. It is an interesting book, but just unbelievable. The man who loves books too much is a book thief, John Gilkey. The thief is a 30 something man in California who feels entitled to steal books he cannot afford - that the "system" which makes the books he loves unaffordable owes it to him. He doesn't read the books, he just collects them because he wants people to think a certain way about him. Like he is a rich person with all these valuable books and all that image. I just shake my head in disbelief. I could never be a book thief. I felt so enraged for the antiquarian book stores he was stealing from, and libraries. He operates on sheer greed. He finally gets busted - there is a rare book seller named Ken Sanders who just relentlessly tracks the thief -
The book has a lot of interesting things about rare books - that was interesting - dust jackets make a book valuable - if the book doesn't have the dust jacket, it goes down in value - the average book collector demographically is a white male 40+ years, $$$ - stuff like that.
I assumed that he loved to READ books, but couldn't afford them! Outrageous!
ReplyDeleteSounds like my mother (not that she steals), who loves having a complete library in her living room, bookcases and bookcases. I grew up with that, my husband didn't, and thinks I have a LOT of books (I don't). Although my mom loves to read, at one time she collected old books in maroon bindings to match her living room. Now, she needs to downsize, and I have targeted all the doubles she has, the ones she didn't like, and the ones she'll never read, but she's refusing. I tell her that people once had home libraries (complete with the ladders to top shelves) because that was the only way to read and have books available, but now we have PUBLIC LIBRARIES for that purpose!
I go thru my bookcases frequently and keep only my VERY BEST FAVORITES (Patrick O'Brian, Hornblower, Jane Austen, Alexander McCall Smith among others) and the rest I rotate by taking them to used book sellers who give me CREDIT to get MORE books! It's a real deal!