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Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession

Author: Allison Hoover
Publisher: Bartlett Riverhead Books
$24.95 Cloth (274 p.)
ISBN: 9781594488917
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Reviewed by Marcia Lusted, Statusing

I am a fan of books about books, particularly those that are about people who are obsessed with books, a tendency I often find mirrored in myself. In The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, author Allison Bartlett introduces us to a man whose quest for books has resulted in a life of crime.

John Gilkey is a man who was willing to go to prison in order to obtain books, specifically, rare books with high price tags. Bartlett learned about Gilkey when she was researching the world of book collecting and theft. Gilkey was an obsessive book fan, one who felt he had the right to own beautiful and rare editions and that it was simply unfair that he couldn’t afford to purchase them. After a series of interviews with Gilkey, both in and out of prison, Bartlett slowly learned how he pulled off his thefts, from the use of bad checks and stolen credit card numbers to actual shoplifting and thefts from libraries. Gilkey’s lack of remorse—and indeed, his ability to justify his crimes—is both fascinating and appalling.

In addition to being a narrative of Gilkey’s crimes of book passion, this is also a wonderful collection of vignettes about people who make their living from buying, selling, and loving books. From upscale dealers, to book fairs, to the people who buy expensive first editions, it’s a real-life look into the same world that author John Dunning uses as his setting in his Bookman mystery series. We also meet the man who took it upon himself to apprehend Gilkey, a bookseller named Ken Sanders, as well as other members of the community of rare book sellers.

The book takes us step-by-step through many of Gilkey’s book crimes, and it is a story without an end, since Bartlett concludes the book with Gilkey once again incarcerated but already planning his next crimes. The book is an enjoyable read, part mystery and part voyeurism as it looks into the mind of a criminal who doesn’t see himself as such because of his love for books.