A review by crafalsk264
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
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
“Possession is 9/10s of the law.” This true crime story tells us of John Gilkey, who made a lifetime of stealing rare books. Gilkey felt that there is no ownership of things—just possession. Gilkey believes that because he doesn’t have the funds to purchase a book then he is justified in acquiring the item by any means. He develops a complicated method of impersonating a legitimate book dealer and has someone else pick up the book. When the dealer learns that the check bounced or the credit card is reported stolen. Ken Sanders, a collector and rare book dealer begins to recognize a pattern and sets up just as elaborate system to nationally report thefts and eventually the system works and Gilkey is identified, arrested, tried and sentenced to a prison term.
We meet the author as she arranges a series of prison interviews. Her examination is a wonderful look into the world of rare book dealers and their customers. The story of Gilkey was interesting but not as a character. The journalist/author does a good job of managing the interviews but she inserts herself in too much of the book. I found the book as a slightly better than average example of the true crime genre but not as good as the best of narrative nonfiction. Recommend to readers of books-about-books, true crime, biography, history, mystery and memoir.