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A review by robinwalter
The Book Forger by Joseph Hone
challenging
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
4.75
A month before reading this book, I read a famous best seller about the history of maritime horology. It was AWFUL. The 'storyline' was a godsend for any wrter looking to write an exciting, thrilling tale of actual events. Instead, the author seemed determined to dessicate the material and render the action-packed saga of intrigue and determination even deader than the centuries-dead characters involved. I expected a gripping yarn, I got a dry, dusty academic treatise. Finishing it was a chore, the writer managed to make it a bore.
Imagine my trepidation then when I started ANOTHER book by an academic on an historical tale of criminality and detection - this one set in the riveting and drama-filled world of BIBLIOPHILES? The subject matter was LITERALLY dry as dust, and yet this book was a true "page turner"
Right from the start, the author brought the story to life, making sure that all the characters - antagonist, protagonists, side characters and all - were presented as real people, not bibliographic entries. The sheer scale of the fraud, the staggering, sublime chutzpah of the 'baddie' and the dogged determination of the 'detectives' made for a truly riveting tale.
The various historical coincidences that peppered the story, like the fact that the nerve centre for the investigators was basically NEXT DOOR to the Detection Club, were further proof of the old saw that real life is stranger than fiction. The author made sure that I simply HAD to keep reading, in the hope of seeing justice done.
I should add that I read ONLY ebooks, and have absolutely ZERO interest in the (to me) manic fixation with the physical objects that bibliomaniacs (or bibliophiles, if one is kinder than I) obsess over. A book to me is its content, not its medium. I collect nothing at all, and cannot grok the collector's mindset. All of which simply makes it all the more remarkable that Dr Hone had me completely hooked with his telling of this tale, one set in an alien world and populated by characters further from me than the Sun is from cold. READ IT!
Imagine my trepidation then when I started ANOTHER book by an academic on an historical tale of criminality and detection - this one set in the riveting and drama-filled world of BIBLIOPHILES? The subject matter was LITERALLY dry as dust, and yet this book was a true "page turner"
Right from the start, the author brought the story to life, making sure that all the characters - antagonist, protagonists, side characters and all - were presented as real people, not bibliographic entries. The sheer scale of the fraud, the staggering, sublime chutzpah of the 'baddie' and the dogged determination of the 'detectives' made for a truly riveting tale.
The various historical coincidences that peppered the story, like the fact that the nerve centre for the investigators was basically NEXT DOOR to the Detection Club, were further proof of the old saw that real life is stranger than fiction. The author made sure that I simply HAD to keep reading, in the hope of seeing justice done.
I should add that I read ONLY ebooks, and have absolutely ZERO interest in the (to me) manic fixation with the physical objects that bibliomaniacs (or bibliophiles, if one is kinder than I) obsess over. A book to me is its content, not its medium. I collect nothing at all, and cannot grok the collector's mindset. All of which simply makes it all the more remarkable that Dr Hone had me completely hooked with his telling of this tale, one set in an alien world and populated by characters further from me than the Sun is from cold. READ IT!