Select delivery location
See All Buying Options
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Allison Hoover Bartlett
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession Audio CD – Unabridged, February 8, 2010

by Allison Hoover Bartlett (Author), Judith Brackley (Narrator)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 420 ratings
See all formats and editions
John Charles Gilkey is an obsessed, unrepentant book thief who has stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of rare books from book fairs, stores, and libraries around the country. Ken Sanders is the self-appointed "bibliodick" (book dealer with a penchant for detective work) driven to catch him. Journalist Allison Hoover Bartlett befriended both eccentric characters and found herself caught in the middle of efforts to recover hidden treasure. With a mixture of suspense, insight, and humor, she not only reveals exactly how Gilkey pulled off his dirtiest crimes and how Sanders ultimately caught him, but also explores the romance of books, the lure to collect them, and the temptation to steal them. Immersing the listener in a rich, wide world of literary obsession, Bartlett looks at the history of book passion, collection, and theft through the ages, to examine the craving that makes some people willing to stop at nothing to possess the books they love.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    6 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Tantor Audio
  4. Publication date
    February 8, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    6.4 x 1.1 x 5.3 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1400113431
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1400113439
  8. See all details
Next page
Best True Crime Books
The top True Crime books curated by Amazon Book Review Editor, Chris Schluep. See his picks.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Brackley's] soft voice, often near a toned whisper, adds the right atmosphere to a biography of a creepy man and a reporter's long search for his motive." ---AudioFile

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tantor Audio; Unabridged CD edition (February 8, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Audio CD ‏ : ‎ 6 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1400113431
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1400113439
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1.1 x 5.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 420 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Allison Hoover Bartlett

Allison Hoover Bartlett

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Allison Hoover Bartlett's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, among other publications. Her original article on John Gilkey was included in the Best American Crime Reporting 2007.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
420 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Rob Stauffer
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!
Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2012
Verified Purchase
I found this to be a fascinating, and very well written book. It gives you a very nice feeling for what it's like to be a rare book collector, as well as a rare book seller. There are lots of "insider" nuggets that only intrigued me to learn more about how to collect and appreciate rare books.
In addition, the story of Gilkey vs. Sanders is well documented and very well researched. I didn't get the impression that she was glorifying Gilkey at all! I was left with the impression that he's an unbalanced man with no concept of ownership rights. He exists in a fantasy world, where he is entitled to all of his desires at no cost to himself.

Sanders, the dealer who ultimately helps bring Gilkey to justice, (at least for awhile), is presented as a complex man. He is definitely the hero of the book, but he has his own quirks and faults, and these are shown by the author as they occurred in her dealings with the man.
I suspect that those who hated the book are projecting their own frustrations with crime in the rare book trade. Too often the theft of a rare book is unappreciated by police/judges/juries, and the thieves walk away with little or no incentive to mend their ways. While Bartlett addresses this at length, I think booksellers may see any presentation of Gilkey as a betrayal.

As a book lover, I never really was interested in pursuing first editions. However, after reading this book, I'm eager to begin my own collection! I found a website for ABAA member bookstores and even bought my first "rare" book. (A first edition, first printing of "Some Kind of Hero" by James Kirkwood with an inscription by the author!) In my opinion, any book about books that can inspire the reader in this manner is not only good for the trade, but a damn good read in the bargain!
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
S. McGee
4.0 out of 5 stars Bibliomanaic vs "Bibliodick"
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2009
Verified Purchase
I confess, I'm a bibliomaniac. But I'm not the kind of monomaniacal collector of first editions who commits credit card fraud in order to waltz off with first editions of classic novels to which he feels entitled, as was (and perhaps still is?) the case with John Gilkey, the "man who loved books too much" of the title.

Allison Hoover Bartlett does a thorough and creditable job of giving readers insight into the arcane world of rare book dealers and into the mind of an obsessive collector, who figures that the high prices of these cherished objects mean that it's just fine for him to steal in order to build his collection. Gilkey can't even describe what the books mean to him -- it's the aesthetics, he ultimately tells Bartlett; he likes the way they look all lined up on a shelf -- but that doesn't stop him from compulsively and self-destructively doing whatever it takes to add to his collection, even after he's been arrested at least twice. Sentenced to three years on one occasion, Gilkey serves 18 months; it seems, he says, "an awfully long time to be behind bars for liking books."

This is an intriguing glimpse into a world that even many avid readers will find new -- that of the rare and antiquarian book trade. At the same time, however, the story itself too often felt like a magazine article expanded in length but not in scope to fill a book. There's a lot of repetition (particularly the author's musings about Gilkey's motives and discussions of his tactics) and not enough action. More problematic for me, at least, was the author herself was far too present in the story. Everything is seen through her eyes, even when I as a reader hungered for her to take a step back and let the protagonists -- the booksellers and Gilkey -- tell me directly or indirectly what transpired. There were some occasions where that tactic clicked, as when Bartlett accompanies Gilkey to visit a bookstore after his release from prison, and chronicles the tension in the air as he prowls through the shelves, watched with thinly-veiled hostility by the storeowner; or when she comments that the rare book dealer who sets out to nab Gilkey -- the hero -- is a more difficult person to deal with than is Gilkey, the criminal. On many other occasions, however, it falls flat, as when she rambles for several pages about the possible motivations of Gilkey. "What must it be like, I wondered, to view the world in such a way, to feel entitled to all one desired and to be able to justify to oneself any means of obtaining it?" It's also frustrating to hear her muse about the questions she wanted to ask him but didn't (if the questions were important, why not ask them? And if not, why bother to mention them?) When she gets a glimpse into Gilkey's room, including a closet filled with books, she doesn't scrutinize them in search of stolen items. "Later, I would curse my lack of courage." But we never learn why or in what circumstances she did so.

Intriguingly, Bartlett comes to question her own complicity with Gilkey -- he begins confessing to her, and tries to give her a satisfactory ending to the book. "I was still trying to cling to the notion that I was recording a story that was progressing without my influence. I was not going to become its director," she writes; at the same time, one of the booksellers she interviews tells her, bitterly, that giving Gilkey a forum for his views is making him too public a figure, and compares the book thief to mass murderer Charles Manson.

I've rated this 3.5 stars for a solid story well-told, and rounded it up to 4 stars because of Bartlett's ability to tell great stories about collecting and books, as well as her insights into how she, too, may be a collector, albeit of a different kind than Gilkey. Writing this book was obviously a transformative experience for Bartlett; I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to any fellow bibliomaniac, but Gilkey's story didn't have the same impact on me as it did the author.

Definitely recommended for anyone interested in books and collecting; others may find it interesting. There are several other excellent books out there with similar themes. In particular, a great five-star read about bibliomania is  GENTLE MADNESS: BIBLIOPHILES, BIBLIOMANES, AND THE ETERNAL PASSION FOR BOOKS.|A  (although it seems to be scarce enough to be a Gilkey target in its own right!), while  To Have and To Hold  by Philipp Blom is one of several books exploring the idea of collecting.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Kindle Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars The Story Takes a Back Seat in this Investigative Memoir
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2009
Verified Purchase
Reads VERY quickly and so I guess I can't say that there is no "there" there, but the story never really does develop into the subtitular tale of a detective (not sure who this refers to actually in the end) and "literary obsession."

John Gilkey plays the role of Bartlett's villain. She spends a healthy amount of time wondering out loud if he really is a bad guy at all before settling in to the realization that he is at least a liar, though perhaps a harmless one. But, if his crimes are kind of harmless, the reader is left to wonder what the big deal is.

Certainly Ken Sanders, a bookseller (to whom the subtitle must be referring as a "detective" given his role as chair of the American Antiquarian Booksellers security committee) thinks the Gilkey's crimes are not harmless. He spends a good deal of his time chasing Gilkey's trail, with a vengeance. At times in the narration, Bartlett ponders whether Sanders is not just as obsessive and misguided as Gilkey. She is kind enough to not hit the reader over the head with the question, which she revists a few times, of which of these men "loved books too much?"

Those tensions (rare book theft as petty misdemeanor or serious offense, and the psychological Sanders versus the psychological Gilkey) become the book's driving tension. I don't think it really ever delivers in a profound way. There is also the fact that Sanders is not a detective and that Gilkey - whatever motivates him or inspires his deviance - does not seem to have anything resembling a "literary obsession."

The biggest problem - cited in many of the "bad" reviews" is that Bartlett has made herself a part of not only the book, but also the case. Early in the book, the constant first person references are jarring and annoying. Instead of using her access to deliver a classic omniscient nonfiction narrative based on telling us what she discovered in interviews, she insists on telling us about the interviews themselves.

Instead of the Gilkey v Sanders storyline, the central conflict becomes her own, between wanting to get close to the story (through research and access) and becoming a part of the story (accompanying the thief to one of his past victim's shops for some sample recon). And, I couldn't help but be distracted from the story by her mismanagement of the sources she used for the story.

As a conclusory side note, I am noticing this a lot lately as narrative nonfiction takes a lot more first person reflection on board. Writers seem to find the most noteworthy parts of otherwise universally interesting stories to be their own role in or perception of those events. I point to recently-released work like Evening's Empire, Miracle Ball, and A Death in Belmont that all take on stories in which the author has some intimate personal involvement. It is not a trend that I am enjoying.
7 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
FAUVERGUE CHRISTOPHE
5.0 out of 5 stars Livre en version anglaise
Reviewed in France on December 19, 2023
Verified Purchase
Beau livre à lire
Customer image
FAUVERGUE CHRISTOPHE
5.0 out of 5 stars Livre en version anglaise
Reviewed in France on December 19, 2023
Beau livre à lire
Images in this review
Customer image Customer image
Customer imageCustomer image
Report
eddy bruin
3.0 out of 5 stars The man who loved books
Reviewed in Germany on July 6, 2019
Verified Purchase
Een aardig gescheven relaas, interessant voor boekverkopers
Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Good
Reviewed in India on September 7, 2018
Verified Purchase
Good
Report
Andre Mendes
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 16, 2017
Verified Purchase
Great Story. Great writing. Great book.
Report
Angelica
3.0 out of 5 stars Catchy title, average writing
Reviewed in France on January 6, 2020
Verified Purchase
I bought this as a Christmas gift to my father as he owns a huge library and cant stop buying books. The title was very catchy and fun in relation to my dad. The subject seemed also quite interesting and fun. Since I live abroad, while traveling to my parents place I took a chance to read the book on the way. Unfortunately, I found the writing average and the story told in a boring way. The author is a journalist and I have the impression that she stretched out and diluted the format of a long article to make a book. She writes well, but without brilliance. The story itself soon becomes boring. Some might find it a nice, easy reading.
Report