Review - The Book on Fire by Keith Miller

The Book on Fire by Keith Miller
Publisher: Immanion Press 2009
Paperback 246 pages

There is a book out there for everyone. A book that speaks to your very soul, that can make you weep in utter heartache and cry tears of joy and amusement. For me, this is the book. This is MY book. I found myself reading slower, rereading passages again and again, just to savor every last morsel from this exquisite feast of the imagination.

Review - Warmly Inscribed: the New England forger and other book tales by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone

Warmly Inscribed: the New England forger and other book tales
by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books St. Martin's Press 2001
Hardcover 215 pages

This is my first go at reading any of the books by the Goldstones, a husband and wife book collecting and writing team. This is the third of their collaborative memoirs, the two previous being the best selling Used and Rare in 1997 and Slightly Chipped in 1999. In Warmly Inscribed the Goldstones recount the story of the infamous New England forger, John Anderson, a book dealer himself who inscribed many rare books with false signatures and then sold them to dealers and collectors. As his crimes became ever more daring, the Goldstones account of the outrage and conviction of the booksellers to finally apprehend the villain in their mists. The Goldstones intersperse this tale with their own humorous book hunting adventures and their travels within the close antiquarian book trade. This little novel would be great bedside reading for any bibliophile.

Review - The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett
Publisher: Riverhead Books 2009
Hardback 274 pages



For the past few weeks I've been on a kick where all I read are books about books and so I was particularly tickled by the title of this one, The Man Who Loved Books Too Much. I was curious; is there really such a thing as loving books "too much"? When does obsession outweigh the benefits of a literary mind?

In this story reporter Allison Hoover Bartlett explores the life of John Gilkey, a thief who steals books, apparently just for the joy of owning them. Through her many interviews with Gilkey, the police and the many antiquarian booksellers whom he stole from, Bartlett weaves a tale of obsession and what I can only describe as sickness. At first I could feel some sort of sympathy for the character, for who doesn't dream of owning that one unattainable book (for me, a signed first edition of Cat's Cradle) or see that special book priced so far out of reach that your entire body aches to let it go. Though it is one thing to yearn for a book and a completely different thing to actually take that book from another person. But this is besides the point, Gilkey didn't seem to yearn for the books in any pure sense... for him, to own a book was not it's own end. His goal was acknowledgment. He saw books as the ultimate status symbol of power, wealth and respect. By gaining access to these books he was, in his own mind, establishing for himself a persona of a cultured gentleman... far removed from his poor, suburban upbringing. While I can't draw the same conclusions as the author as to the reasons why Gilkey stole, the story is never the less an intriguing look into the antiquarian book trade.

Review - The Whole Five Feet by Christopher R. Beha

The Whole Five Feet by Christopher R. Beha
Publisher: Grove Press 2009
Hardback 258 pages


There has always been something intriguing to me about reading a book about reading books. The motivations of why people read what they do may sound like a dull story to some, but in Beha's book; The Whole Five Feet, we see a moving memoir and how books have the power, not only to impart ideas, but to change lives.

In The Whole Five Feet, Christopher Beha attempts to read the entire shelf of the Harvard Classics. Ranging from such literary heroes like Thoreau, Homer and Milton, to lesser known names like John Woolman, the Harvard classics were meant to bring the liberal education, which was normally achieved through years at a university, to the masses.

While at first glance one would think this book is destined to be yet another humorous memoir, not unlike A.J. Jacobs The Know-It-All, the tragedies of Beha's life, his own illness combined with a death of a beloved family member, turn this into a touching journey of healing. I found the book to be both entertaining and inspiring, and at the very least in re-introduced me to authors I had long forgotten.