The Man Who Loved Books Too Much
The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession
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Narrated by:
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Judith Brackley
About this listen
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.
©2009 Alison Bartlett (P)2010 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Editorial reviews
Who knew book collecting could be so provocative? Yet in journalist Allison Hoover Bartlett’s hands, that rarefied world and the eccentric characters who populate it represents one of lust and obsession, and of crime and punishment. In The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, Bartlett, who first reported the true-crime tale for San Francisco magazine, introduces us to two rabid collectors, each a funhouse-mirror image of the other. There’s John Gilkey, the remorseless thief who swiped hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of rare books not for profit (he seldom unloaded from his robust collection), but for love. And there’s Ken Sanders nicknamed “Bibliodick” by friends the bookstore owner and dealer who relentlessly (and, in the end, successfully) pursues him.
Helping the six-hour narrative flow along and flow it does, effortlessly weaving in a history of book collecting (and book thieving) with all the gumshoe action is narrator Judith Brackley’s smooth delivery. Measured, steady, patient, her voice contains the quiet rhythms of an NPR reporter or a Sunday school teacher. But this isn’t to say Brackley’s interpretation doesn’t veer toward buoyant effervescence from time to time. Indeed, describing Gilkey’s bold crime sprees elicits an especially enthusiastic cadence you can almost imagine the author’s jaw dropping when she heard the amazing anecdotes for the first time.
Though Bartlett makes a noble attempt to delve into the psychology of her characters, she doesn’t make many inroads, instead just circling around the same question over and over again namely, just what it is about books, of all things, that seem to turn normal people mad. The most delicious moments, in fact, may come when Bartlett inserts herself into the story; as Gilkey begins confiding more and more about his crimes, the objective journalist becomes entangled in the narrative, wondering what actions, if any, she should take. As read by Brackley, these confessional moments are when the book really comes alive, drawing you in as if it’s Bartlett herself speaking right into your ear. Jaime Buerger
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Sweet, Sweet Revenge Ltd.
- A Novel
- By: Jonas Jonasson
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The beloved author of The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared returns with an enchanting adventure that skewers the greed and hypocrisy that dominates our time and holds lessons about what’s truly important in life.
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Entertaining
- By Alek Grant on 07-17-24
By: Jonas Jonasson
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If the Devil Had a Wife
- By: Frank Mills
- Narrated by: A.T. Chandler
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Once upon a time. Happily ever after. Such are the classic promises of fairy tales. Yet in Texas we find a twist to the familiar storyline. In If the Devil Had a Wife, there is still the battle of Good vs. Evil, a beautiful maiden, a wealthy suitor, a kingdom of riches and the wicked witch, but any similarity with Cinderella and Snow White ends there. With the help of her life partner and an attorney (always necessary in these modern times), Nelda Stark executes a devious plan that elevates fraud and theft to a new high.
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What a Tale!!
- By Texas Native on 09-28-16
By: Frank Mills
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Harry, a History
- The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon
- By: Melissa Anelli
- Narrated by: Renée Raudman
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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With remembrances from J. K. Rowling's editors, agents, publicists, fans, and Rowling herself, Melissa Anelli takes us on a personal journey through every aspect of the Harry Potter phenomenon - from his very first spell to his lasting impact on the way we live and dream.
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Relive the magic!
- By Heather on 03-19-09
By: Melissa Anelli
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My Korean Deli
- Risking It All for a Convenience Store
- By: Ben Ryder Howe
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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This sweet and funny tale of a preppy editor buying a Brooklyn deli with his Korean in-laws is about family, culture clash, and the quest for authentic experiences. It starts with a gift. When Ben Ryder Howe’s wife, the daughter of Korean immigrants, decides to repay her parents’ self-sacrifice by buying them a store, Howe, an editor at the rarefied Paris Review, agrees to go along.
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Absolutely delightful!
- By Grace O'Malley on 03-19-11
By: Ben Ryder Howe
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Baltimore Blues
- Tess Monaghan, Book 1
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Deborah Hazlett
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Unemployed at 29, Tess Monaghan is willing to take any freelance job to pay the rent—including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy, Darryl "Rock" Paxton. In a city where someone is murdered almost every day, attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer's notoriety—and his noontime trysts with Rock's fiancée—make the case front page news...and point to Rock as the likely murderer. But trying to prove her friend's innocence could prove costly to Tess.
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I'm on #8 - This series is almost unique
- By connie on 02-19-12
By: Laura Lippman
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My Life with Bob
- Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues
- By: Pamela Paul
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens, Pamela Paul
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Pamela Paul has kept a single book by her side for 28 years - carried throughout high school and college, hauled from Paris to London to Thailand, from job to job, safely packed away and then carefully removed from apartment to house to its current perch on a shelf over her desk - reliable if frayed, anonymous-looking yet deeply personal. This book has a name: Bob. Bob is Paul's Book of Books, a journal that records every book she's ever read.
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An uncanny mirror and a celebration of book love
- By Cherilyn Parsons on 07-28-19
By: Pamela Paul
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Bad Paper
- Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld
- By: Jake Halpern
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Jake Halpern introduces us to a former banking executive and a former armed robber who become partners and go in quest of "paper" - the uncollected debts that are sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar. As Halpern shows, the world of consumer debt collection is a wild and unregulated shadow land, where operators may misrepresent a debtor's situation, make illegal threats, and even lay claim to debts that are not theirs to collect in the first place.
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An Examination of Bad Debts; its Buyers & Sellers
- By Darwin8u on 08-22-16
By: Jake Halpern
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The Aleppo Codex
- A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible
- By: Matti Friedman
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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A true-life thriller about the journey of one of the world's most precious manuscripts - the 10th-century annotated Hebrew Bible known as the Aleppo Codex - from its hiding place in an ancient Syrian synagogue to the newly founded Israel. Using his research, including documents that have been secret for 50 years and interviews with key players, AP correspondent Friedman tells a story of political upheaval, international intrigue, charged courtroom battles, obsession, and subterfuge.
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don't quess at pronunciation of foreign words
- By dlb on 05-28-12
By: Matti Friedman
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LEGO
- A Love Story
- By: Jonathan Bender
- Narrated by: Jeremy Gage
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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There are 62 LEGO bricks for every person in the world, and at age 30, Jonathan Bender realized that he didn't have a single one of them. While reconsidering his childhood dream of becoming a master model builder for The LEGO Group, he discovers the men and women who are skewing the averages with collections of hundreds of thousands of LEGO bricks. What is it about the ubiquitous, brightly colored toys that makes them so hard for everyone to put down?
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Be careful if you already like Lego
- By Matthew Center on 03-14-11
By: Jonathan Bender
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Maphead
- Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks
- By: Ken Jennings
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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It comes as no surprise that, as a kid, Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings slept with a bulky Hammond world atlas by his pillow every night. Maphead recounts his lifelong love affair with geography and explores why maps have always been so fascinating to him and to fellow enthusiasts everywhere.
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A Romp through Maps
- By Lynn on 01-27-12
By: Ken Jennings
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And When She Was Good
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Linda Emond
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Heloise considers it a blessing to be a person who seldom attracts attention. In her suburb, she's just a mom, the young widow with the forgettable job, who somehow never misses a soccer game. In the state capital, she's the redheaded lobbyist with a good cause and a mediocre track record. But in discreet hotel rooms throughout the area, she's the woman of your dreams - if you can afford the hourly fee. For more than a decade, Heloise believed she was safe, managing to keep up this rigidly compartmentalized life. But her secret life is under siege. One county over, another so-called suburban madam has been found dead in her car, an apparent suicide.
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And When She Was Bad...
- By Carole T. on 08-18-12
By: Laura Lippman
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The Lost Painting
- The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece
- By: Jonathan Harr
- Narrated by: Campbell Scott
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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An Italian village on a hilltop near the Adriatic coast, a decaying palazzo facing the sea, and in the basement, cobwebbed and dusty, lit by a single bulb, an archive unknown to scholars. Here, a young graduate student from Rome, Francesca Cappelletti, makes a discovery that inspires a search for a work of art of incalculable value, a painting lost for almost two centuries.
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an incredible and complex story unfolds seamlessly
- By Jeremiah on 10-31-05
By: Jonathan Harr
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Faces of the Gone
- Carter Ross, Book 1
- By: Brad Parks
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Four bodies, each with a single bullet wound in the back of the head, stacked like cordwood in a weed-choked vacant lot: That's the front-page news facing Carter Ross, investigative reporter with the Newark Eagle-Examiner. Immediately dispatched to the scene, Carter learns that the four victims - an exotic dancer, a drug dealer, a hustler, and a mama's boy - came from different parts of the city and didn't seem to know one another.
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Wish Brad Parks were more prolific!!!!
- By shelley on 02-16-18
By: Brad Parks
What listeners say about The Man Who Loved Books Too Much
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Lissa Goldman
- 07-22-10
Great Story, Great narration
A very compelling story about a little-known compulsion. Excellant narration and character development. Helped me to understand a little about my own love of books. Am looking forward to more writing by this author.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Betty
- 05-23-10
Disturbing
As a book lover, I found this book disturbing and depressing. It's definitely readable, but the thief's amorality, the disinterest of the police, and the rather diffident presentation of these bothered me.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Joshua Kim
- 06-10-12
Loved It
Wikipedia defines "bibliomania" as "an obsessive–compulsive disorder involving the collecting or hoarding of books to the point where social relations or health are damaged." Having "bibliomania" is probably bad, but being a "bibliophile" (someone who "who loves to read, admire and collect books, often amassing a large and specialized collection"), is more admirable.
Do we have a word the digital book (audio and e-book) enthusiasts among us? Maybe "digi-bibliophile" or "e-bibliophile"? Can I trademark these terms? (A quick google search, done after thinking of the name, shows that I did not get to this first - oh well).
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much is about bibliomaniacs, bibliophiles, and all the people in between. Bartlett structures her story around a John Gilkey, a mentally unbalanced thief who managed to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rare books via credit card fraud in the 1990s. Gilkey's crimes give us a window into the rarified world of rare book dealing and collecting.
I had no idea that there exists an "Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America" (ABAA), or that antiquarian book shows were such a big deal. It came as a surprise to me that rare book collectors collect mostly not to read their acquisitions, that the value of the book is less in its content but in its scarcity and historical significance. The catchphrase in rare book circles is to "never judge a book by its contents". Only first edition, first run books - in mint condition with their dust jackets intact - are valuable.
Some people think that the ascension of e-books will only increase the value of paper books that are beautifully constructed and have historical significance. The thinking goes that the rise of e-books will make paper books even more rare, and that we will do the bulk of our reading digitally while cherishing those certain physical books that we have an emotional connection with. Maybe.
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much is a great read for the bibliophiles, e-bibliophiles, and e-bibliomaniacs among us. Highly recommended.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Tiffany Maytum
- 10-13-24
Interesting story
Narrator was a Mona toned but told a great story of a man’s love of books. Reminded me of the movie “Catch Me If You Can”, but with books.
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Overall
- Bonnie T
- 04-18-10
A Good Listen!
I started this book right after buying it and didn't stop listening until it was finished. Living in Salt Lake and being familiar with Ken Sanders made it even more enjoyable for me. I have been telling everyone that this is a book they should buy.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Peter
- 08-23-10
Steal this review
This book is definitely a niche listen...I am into reading/listening about the "art of the steal" of books, maps, art, etc. Well done Allison, the historical tie ins' added most excellently to the story. The narration was well done and made the characters interesting. Not for everyone, but for this listener... priceless!
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2 people found this helpful
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- disudds
- 10-11-21
Fascinating
What a fascinating book! Similar to the Feather Thief as it takes on the world of crime in a distinct field, The Man Who Loved Books Too Much is a story of crime, personality, and obsession. I especially enjoyed the bits with Ken Sanders, as I have been in his Salt Lake store several times to buy special books for events.
Brackley does a great job of reading the book and moving the listener through the story at just the right pace.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Margaret
- 09-06-10
Repetitive
The world of the story - rare books - deserves five stars, well-researched and something I hadn't seen before. However, the author uses the line "I still didn't understand what made him steal rare books..." a gazillion times too many, long after the reader understands, the three Ken's understand and a dim witted geranium could have understood if given a fair chance. Therefore, by the end, the story is repetitive and anti-climatic, which is a pity because a tighter edit could have prevented this.
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Donna Davidson Myer
- 08-16-10
Like the subject matter - don't like the narrator
I read about this book awhile back and was immediately intrigued. I really like the subject matter, but the narrator is monotone and offputting. I think this is one I might have to read in hard copy.
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2 people found this helpful
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- A. Yoshida
- 08-17-19
Dull Characters in the Book
The writing style was dull; it didn't evoke images of the characters and left you not caring about any of the characters. The author should have written more about the rare book industry and the nuances that could make a first edition book of a famous author worth thousands (like having the dust cover).
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