Review: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Alli­son Hoover Bartlett

Note: This review is based upon an uncor­rected proof which I received via a give­way on GoodReads.

I don’t, as a rule, read True Crime; I do enjoy a good mys­tery. So when I saw this book being offered in a give­away over at GoodReads.com; I felt I just had to enter.  Then when I was home sick the other day, the book arrived in the mail. Given I hadn’t yet noticed I’d won a copy it was a very pleas­ant surprise.

I moved the book to the top of my to-read list and once I started on it was glad I had done so. It’s strange; there’s no quick paced action,  no tense drama yet I couldn’t put it down. Maybe it was the author’s fas­in­ca­tion with Gilkey (the theif)  & Sanders (the “bib­liod­ick”) or maybe it was the author’s own fas­ci­na­tion with this pri­vate world of rare book deal­ers. It cer­tainly wasn’t the char­ac­ters that drew me in. Gilkey was given the most “page­time” but he wasn’t very inter­est­ing. Sim­ply an unre­pen­tant crook (all protes­ta­tions to the con­trary) who choose credit card fraud as his easy method of liv­ing the good life, which hap­pens to involve own­ing rare books. Sanders was slightly bet­ter but seemed too angry/bitter for much of the book.

While I’m still not sure why I enjoyed this book, it’s safe to say it was an good read.

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About Mark McKibben

Mark is a data analyst for [REDACTED], currently residing in the Midwest. CoffeeBear is a place for him to spout off about whatever catches his fancy. In his spare time, Mark does a bit of webdev & design. To stalk him more effectively, try following him on Twitter.

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