A review by lakecake
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett

3.0

This is an interesting true-crime book that follows a thief of rare books in the late 90s/early 2000s. The world of rare book collectors and dealers is really fascinating--I mean, come on, if you're reading this you probably love books and would love to own some rare first edition or autographed copy or original manuscript--and the idea of someone who would steal those books with something close to impunity is intriguing. The issue comes in because the thief, John Gilkey, is actually just kind of a noodge. He isn't doing it to be make money or to outsmart people and prove what an amazing strategist he is; he just feels like he deserves nice things because he wants them, and other people have cheated him his whole life so it's ok to take what he wants. It's such a let down--not to say that if he were trying to make a ton of money or just be an evil mastermind that it would be ok! Just that at least it would be more interesting.