Rare Find
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If you love buying, reading and then admiring the books on your shelves, you'll love this book. If you've never been to a second-hand book dealer's shop, you soon will. It's compulsive reading, then compulsive spending!
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Gentle Madness, light, very light
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The book I refer to in the title is, "A Gentle Madness" by Nicholas A. Basbanes. If you are not yet prepared to spend the time the 638-page Basbanes book requires, this short story may be amusing.
The book is generally well written, and at times quite funny. Unfortunately there is an arrogance that pervades the book that is as misplaced as it is mean spirited. Perhaps the Authors felt the need to compensate for their neophyte status as book collectors, by making sport of those who truly know books.
Book collecting is complex, and can be extremely expensive for the newcomer. There are several useful pieces of information the Authors learn and share, but it is too often accompanied by their observations about the people and the bookstores they patronize. The learning curve on collecting is a long one, and the dealers who take their time to instruct the novice are more prevalent than you might imagine, and it's been my experience that they ask for nothing in return. Many booksellers just love books, the fact they part with them on occasion through a sale is often almost painful for them.
So do note from this book how not to deal with people, how not to take advantage of their time and their willingness to share it, and then exploit the experience for your own profit. A book collector would never have written in the manner they chose.This is the result of research done for a book that was written over a cup of coffee, maybe two.
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Delightful and entertaining read!
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This book was an adorable memoir!! Well written, humorous, and even dropped facts about antiquarian book collecting.
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Delicious!
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The word "delightful" is much over-used but I can't think of a better word to describe "Used and Rare" by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. Wait a minute, I can - "moving", "witty", "informative", "affectionate" and "a pleasure" are some other words I could use to describe this marvellous (there's another one!) book. It's comforting to discover that the eccentricities and foibles of book dealers, book collectors and assorted other bibliomaniacs aren't an exclusively Australian phenomenon, and the authors' dead-on phonetic rendering of a Trans-Tasman/New Zealand accent frequently brought a smile to this Aussie reader's face.
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Two people share their joy of book collecting
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Books on book collecting might be boring. This one is exciting. The enthusiasm of Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone, professional writers who live in the Berkshire hills of Massachussetts, is contagious. They are novices at book collecting until Nancy decides to purchase a nice hard cover copy of War and Peace to give to Lawrence. She has a $20.00 budget (based on a deal the couple made to stop buying each other expensive silly birthday presents and to cap the cost at twenty dollars). Nancy decides that she will buy Lawrence a nice hardcover copy of War and Peace. This turns out to be something of a search for the holy grail. Does she want a first edition? In English, French, or Russian. What translation does she want? Nancy and Lawrence soon find themselves hooked on collecting books, especially modern first editions, and go traversing the Berkshire Hills for books, used and rare. They go to Boston and New York. They attend book fairs and auctions. They buy a set of the Wharton sisters books at auction for $60. They promise to give up eating out to rationalize a purchase in Boston.They buy a two volume set of Dickens Bleak House for $700.00. But they are just as happy with their $20.00 copy of Andersonville. They uncover the mystery of what "first state" and "second state" is, and what it means for a book to be "foxed" or "shaken" or "rubbed." They cannot understand why Burroughs first edition of Tarzan sells for $50,000.00. They love every minute of their book exploration, including some eccentric antiquarian book sellers they meet along the way. Their enthusiasm captures the reader. This quick read will make you a book collector.
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