Does anyone else enjoy reading about other booklover's and their foibles?
One of my favorite bibliophile authors is Nicolas Basbanes, and his best book (in my view) is A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books.
On my "To Read" shelf is: The Professor A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon WinchesterYou will read about a man who "collected" over 23,000 books from various libraries and other book outlets just to possess them. His library grew as he traveled around the Country adding to his collection. His taste was excellent and his library contained priceless volumes by the hundreds. His story illustrates how easy access is to rare books and further how they can be purloined. It is not a how to steal books section, just one amazing tale.
The book also documents the building/collection of some of the finest libraries in existence. The libraries are as varied as there are books. One women set out to build the definitive library of children's books, what she has collected will amaze you.
The attitudes of the caretakers of these works view themselves as just that, keepers for a time, their feelings about where books should be, and should never be will surprise you. What is done with many collections after the original assembler dies will also surprise you.
The book also educates the reader to the History of bookmaking, the few surviving Guttenberg Bibles, books from the cradle i.e. incunabula, produced prior to the year 1400ad.
This book will probably set you off to an antiquarian bookfair, for lovers of books it's a special experience. Hold a first edition by Galileo, see 1 page of a Guttenberg Bible that for $25,000-$30,000 can be yours. Or for the upscale shopper you can bid against Bill Gates for the Leicester Codex of Da Vinci, in round numbers bring about $40,000,000.
Then there is the Cliff Janeway series by John Dunning: Booked to Die, Bookman's Promise, Bookman's Wake, Sign of the Book, etc.The compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, 70 years in the making, was an intellectually heroic feat with a twist worthy of the greatest mystery fiction: one of its most valuable contributors was a criminally insane American physician, locked up in an English asylum for murder. British stage actor Simon Jones leads us through this uncommon meeting of minds (the other belonging to self-educated dictionary editor James Murray) at full gallop. Ultimately, it's hard to say which is more remarkable: the facts of this amazingly well-researched story, or the sound of author Simon Winchester's erudite prose.
Booked to Die: Cliff Janeway is a Denver detective who is extremely passionate about books. When a bookscout is murdered, Janeway is put on the case and he begins investigating the Denver antiquarian book community. Janeway ultimately ends up leaving the police force after tangling one too many times with an old enemy, and he opens a book store, though he continues to investigate the bookscout's murder. Along the way, Janeway encounters a number of fascinating characters, all of whom are involved in some way in the book trade.
At its heart, this is a 'hard-boiled" detective story, and Janeway can be a bit of a thug at times, but that's part of his charm. The story is told in the first person (from Janeway's perspective, obviously), which I always enjoy. The action is pretty constant and Janeway's investigation is intelligent and doesn't insult the reader with obvious plotholes or pointless subplots. The dialogue is very natural, and often downright clever.
The cast of characters is truly outstanding and one of the greatest strengths of the book. Dunning has done a great job of crafting a Denver antiquarian book community that feels real. There are a few passages in the book describing how Janeway or one of the other characters feels about books that really hit home for me - Dunning truly "gets it" - he is clearly a bibliophile who understands what it is to genuinely *love* books.
