This week, I finished Allison Hoover Bartlett's The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession. 

It's a good non-fiction work about a rare book thief, John Gilkey, and a book dealer/sleuth, Ken Sanders. The story includes the crimes, the fascination with rare books, and the eventual capture of the criminal.

Bartlett's details about rare books, collectors, and the publishing industry are enlightening. I learned a lot about first editions (and what aren't first editions). Much of what's purported to be authentic isn't. She also explains many of the techniques that have been used throughout the years to fake rare books.

She does a thorough job describing key book thieves throughout the centuries. She also sprinkles in anecdotes about how pages of books were used in the early days. Some were pulled from rare editions for writing notes or to wrap food in because of the scarcity of paper.

My favorites were the book warnings (or curses) that she includes:

"From him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner...Let him be struck with palsy & all his members blasted...Let bookworms gnaw his entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not, & when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him forever."
                                                ~ Anathema in a medieval manuscript from the Monastery of San Pedro in Barcelona


"This book belongs to none but me
For there's my name inside to see.
To steal this book, if you should try,
It's by the throat that you'll hang high.
And ravens then will gather 'bout
To find your eyes and pull them out,
And when you're screaming
"Oh, Oh, Oh!"
Remember, you deserved this woe.

                                                ~ Warning written by a medieval German scribe