Book Thief - Book Detective - Book Writer Book

Enigmatic thief, passionate dealer/detective, questing journalist; good book.

Much of 'The Man Who Loved Book Too Much’ by Allison Hoover Bartlett (to be published September 2009) reads like a police procedural – we all know the thief gets caught – the attraction is in seeing how, and how the thief and pursuer – equally obsessed – are alike and different. Some reads like a revelatory memoir where the author chronicles her shallow journey into the depths of rare-book obsession. Despite the clunky title that the too-much-information overtone of the author’s interspersed first-person narratives, overall enjoyable for anyone who likes (or is obsessed by) books – rare or not, or by well-depicted quirky protagonists, or by off-beat detecting.

I don't always buy books, but when I do I buy them at the Blue Willow Bookshop