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A review by batwoman411
The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps by Michael Blanding
3.0
Maps, maps, maps. I read this book because it reminded me of The Poet, The Madman, and the Murderer to a degree. But it wasn’t as interesting. It bogged down in mapphilia and extended historical descriptions of some of the maps that Smiley stole. I am not a mapphile, so it was arduous to read through these parts.
It was more astounding to me though that pretty much anyone off the street could access books of rare and valuable maps unsupervised in a library and leave with a $100,000 map in their pocket. And that the libraries that housed these maps had such poor inventory systems for the maps that they didn’t even know when they were missing. Furthermore, when the libraries learned they were missing, they did not want to call attention to their losses.
If maps are your thing, this book should make a fascinating read.
It was more astounding to me though that pretty much anyone off the street could access books of rare and valuable maps unsupervised in a library and leave with a $100,000 map in their pocket. And that the libraries that housed these maps had such poor inventory systems for the maps that they didn’t even know when they were missing. Furthermore, when the libraries learned they were missing, they did not want to call attention to their losses.
If maps are your thing, this book should make a fascinating read.