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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
A book about books is intriguing to book lovers. That's obvious. But this book emulated exactly how I imagine people who do not like reading view books. Boring, dull and tedious. The title is probably the most interesting thing about it.
The man in the centre is not a bookworm or a booklover, he could as well steal and 'collect' stamps, paintings or shoes. The love here is merely for the physical object and not even in a way some readers worship their books keeping them in a stellar condition before and after reading. (Don't you dare to dog-ear, you heathen!) The man just likes the idea of wealth and class that is associated with having a library filled with rare and valuable books, meaning the aristocrats who have rooms of books but don't read them. Or people who fill their shelves with books to look good on online job interviews. Any passion for books that a bookworm might expect to find here is just not there.
What doesn't help is that the author is hung up on the idea that Gilkey loves books and she can't figure out why books in particular even though she 'finds out' in the first meeting but keeps asking herself over and over and trying to uncover something that is as obvious as a snowplough in summer. There's nothing to uncover. The dude stole to achieve something he didn't have, money and prestige, end of the story. He doesn't like books, he likes money. He feels like the world owes him something. The author is trying to dig something up pondering "Was he amoral or mentally ill? How are such lines drawn anyway?" Not the best wording or idea behind these questions, is it? And even if Gilkey has some mental illness, Allison Hoover Bartlett has no authority on assessing that. She's not a psychiatrist or therapist, she's a journalist. Her comparing the two central men in the story Gilkey: the book thief, and Sanders: a book collector and a bookseller rubbed me the wrong way too. Especially when she's comparing how the two behaved and that Gilkey was nice to her while Sanders was angry because she went book browsing with Gilkey to the same shops he stole from before. I think that's a pretty reasonable thing to be angry about, but okay.
In the end, even if I didn't care about the things above, the book's organization is bad. The snippets of past and present are so mixed, interrupted by random facts about expensive books, people obsessed with them and the author's personal ponderings that it didn't make much sense and didn't keep my attention. In short, it was inconsistent and boring as hell. Let's just say I should have DNF this book.
The man in the centre is not a bookworm or a booklover, he could as well steal and 'collect' stamps, paintings or shoes. The love here is merely for the physical object and not even in a way some readers worship their books keeping them in a stellar condition before and after reading. (Don't you dare to dog-ear, you heathen!) The man just likes the idea of wealth and class that is associated with having a library filled with rare and valuable books, meaning the aristocrats who have rooms of books but don't read them. Or people who fill their shelves with books to look good on online job interviews. Any passion for books that a bookworm might expect to find here is just not there.
What doesn't help is that the author is hung up on the idea that Gilkey loves books and she can't figure out why books in particular even though she 'finds out' in the first meeting but keeps asking herself over and over and trying to uncover something that is as obvious as a snowplough in summer. There's nothing to uncover. The dude stole to achieve something he didn't have, money and prestige, end of the story. He doesn't like books, he likes money. He feels like the world owes him something. The author is trying to dig something up pondering "Was he amoral or mentally ill? How are such lines drawn anyway?" Not the best wording or idea behind these questions, is it? And even if Gilkey has some mental illness, Allison Hoover Bartlett has no authority on assessing that. She's not a psychiatrist or therapist, she's a journalist. Her comparing the two central men in the story Gilkey: the book thief, and Sanders: a book collector and a bookseller rubbed me the wrong way too. Especially when she's comparing how the two behaved and that Gilkey was nice to her while Sanders was angry because she went book browsing with Gilkey to the same shops he stole from before. I think that's a pretty reasonable thing to be angry about, but okay.
In the end, even if I didn't care about the things above, the book's organization is bad. The snippets of past and present are so mixed, interrupted by random facts about expensive books, people obsessed with them and the author's personal ponderings that it didn't make much sense and didn't keep my attention. In short, it was inconsistent and boring as hell. Let's just say I should have DNF this book.
I was expecting more of a narrative. It just didn't capture my attention.
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
An intriguing book.
3.75/5
Read for prompts for: #ReadHarderChallenge2022 and #ReadYourBookshelfChallenge2022
3.75/5
Read for prompts for: #ReadHarderChallenge2022 and #ReadYourBookshelfChallenge2022
informative
slow-paced
Not sure whether to give it a 2 or 3 star rating. It was an interesting read but also irritating in a lot of ways. It's worth a read and would be a good book to discuss with other people.
The “man who loved books too much” is nothing more than a petty criminal that steals books by paying for them with bad checks and stolen credit numbers.
The story is made to sound more interesting and exciting than it actually is. The writing is bogged down by the repetitive description of how he fraudulently bought books. Could’ve been much shorter.
The story is made to sound more interesting and exciting than it actually is. The writing is bogged down by the repetitive description of how he fraudulently bought books. Could’ve been much shorter.
A lovely book on a different kind of "crimes of passion". An insightful look at the obsessive love affair collectors have with books, and the psychology of collecting in general.
Highly recommended to all fellow bibliophiles.
Highly recommended to all fellow bibliophiles.
Used book stores are one of a bibliophile's true pleasures and this book is a look into collecting - and stealing - rare collectible tomes. The crimes involved are as interesting as the passion that book invoke. A great read that I would recommend to anyone who loves books.
fast-paced
funny
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced