The man who loved books too much

the true story of a thief, a detective, and a world of literary obsession

274 pages

English language

Published Nov. 7, 2009 by Riverhead Books.

ISBN:
978-1-59448-891-7
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OCLC Number:
311778251

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3 stars (3 reviews)

Unrepentant book thief John Charles Gilkey has stolen a fortune in rare books from around the county. Yet unlike most thieves, who steal for profit, Gilkey steals for the love of the books. Perhaps equally obsessive, though, is Ken Sanders, the self-appointed "bibliodick" driven to catch him. Sanders, a lifelong rare book collector and dealer turned amateur detective, will stop at nothing to catch the thief plaguing his trade.

5 editions

Review of 'The man who loved books too much' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

Not what it says on the tin. The man who loved books too much barely seems to like them at all. The detective is actually a rare book dealer, who sort of accidentally fell into a security side job. There definitely is a world of literary obsession, but you'll only hear tidbits about it between the author's tangents. All in all it seems like a story that would have been adequately covered by an article. The only thing that makes it book length is the author's endless chronicling of her investigations. Protip: the nice thing about you, the author, doing all the research and legwork is that we, the readers, then don't have to. It kinda defeats the point if you write more about your journalistic efforts than about their results.

John Gilkey, the thief, only wanted rare books because they represented the high life to him. It could have …

avatar for JohnnyCache

rated it

5 stars
avatar for mrw

rated it

3 stars

Subjects

  • Gilkey, John, -- 1968-
  • Sanders, Ken, -- 1951-
  • Book collectors -- United States -- Biography
  • Thieves -- United States -- Biography
  • Book collecting
  • Bibliomania
  • Book thefts