Warmly Inscribed: The New England Forger and Other Book Tales [Hardcover]

I just discovered this series and basically read all three within a 2 week period. I also ended up reading them out of order, starting with Slightly Chipped.

I loved the premise of these books. I loved reading about two people discovering their love of books and more specifically their love of collecting. Their writing style is funny, witty and entertaining.

Although I loved all three books, I thought that Warmly Inscribed was the weakest of the three books. The charm, for me, of the first two books was to read about the Goldstone's anecdotes about their constant search for yet another bookstore and, of course, another book that they could not possibly buy (but ended up buying anyway). The last book did not have the "friendly, fun, never know what you are going to discover next feeling" that the first two books had. The story was somewhat dry (the forger story was too long) and it felt as though they kept jumping from one story to another without really telling us anything.

By the way, I enjoy hearing about the meals they have during their book collecting trips. THAT's the kind of stuff that made the first two books fun!

Which is not to say that it is not good.

What I loved most about "Used and Rare" was discovering the book trade along with the Goldstones - from the purchase of the first book (how to get a nice cheap hardcover edition of War and Peace) via falling for the temptation to spend way more that is sensible on a nice Dickens to starting to feel that they are finding their feet in this sometimes confusing trade.

In "Slightly Chipped" the focus shifted slightly from the Goldstones own experience to anecdotes of other people's adventures, and what they told us of themselves was more to do with book-signings and related events than with book-hunting along dusty shelves. Though still enjoyable, I could not but feel that part of the fun had gone out of the telling.

In "Warmly Inscribed" this shift away from actual book-hunting continues. A major part of the book is taken up with the history of the "New England Forger" - an interesting story, and certainly an instructive one for those of us interested in signed books, but from a secondary source. And a lot of the primary source stories have more to do with viewing books in libraries than with hunting for a copy for oneself.

As I said, this doesn't make it a bad book. The Goldstones are writing what is probably the most enjoyable series of books for bibliophiles at the moment. Their style is informal and very personal, and even events that are retold through several people gain a sort of immediacy. Their description of the Library of Congress certainly makes me want to visit the place more than
anything else I've read about it.

I do miss the bookstore stories, though. There are so relatively few books written about the actual buying and collecting of used and rare books from a personal point of view - there are manuals like "The ABC for Book Collectors", but so few "look what I found!" stories. I wish the next book would return to this viewpoint.

(Actually, what I really want to see is a "The Goldstones discover Hay-on-Wye, Wales" - now _that_ would be good!)

One of the best aspects of this series is the glimpse that it gives the reader into the world of serious book collecting and the Goldstones' adventures therein. That being said, nearly a quarter of this 215 page book is taken up by the story of the New England forger - which has very little bearing on the Goldstones and their collection. A semi-interesting aside, it hardly deserved to dominate the book.

On the other hand, I really did enjoy reading about the visits to the Library of Congress and the Folger Library, which offered a glimpse into collections that few of us will ever have the chance to visit. Their take on the influence of the internet on the book trade was also interesting, but should there be a fourth book in the series, I hope that they will return to what they do best - relating personal stories of chasing down treasures.