<B>In the tradition of <I>The Orchid Thief, a compelling narrative set within the strange and genteel world of rare-book collecting: the true story of an infamous book thief, his victims, and the man determined to catch him.

Rare-book theft is even more widespread than fine-art theft. Most thieves, of course, steal for profit. John Charles Gilkey steals purely for the love of books. In an attempt to understand him better, journalist Allison Hoover Bartlett plunged herself into the world of book lust and discovered just how dangerous it can be.

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. Bartlett befriended both outlandish characters and found herself caught in the middle of efforts to recover hidden treasure. With a mixture of suspense, insight, and humor, she has woven this entertaining cat-and-mouse chase into a narrative that not only reveals exactly how Gilkey pulled off his dirtiest crimes, where he stashed the loot, 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 reader 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.

At Home with Books is a visual delight, a helpful resource, and an inspiration for every bibliophile with a growing home library. Includes professional advice on editing and categorizing your library; caring for your books; preserving, restoring, and storing rare books; finding out-of-print books; and choosing furniture, lighting, and shelving. <b>Full-color photographs.

It’s no secret the sexy and racy cover art of femme fatales from the golden age of paperbacks and magazines exalts the female form in all its sexy and sultry allure. Still today, these lustful, and sometimes lurid images are enticing and artistically inspiring. In this book, from the founder and editor of Paperback Parade magazine, you will encounter an amazing assortment of nearly 700 full-color cover images of sexy, semi-dressed pin-up dolls, dangerous bad girls and deadly dames, not to mention lust, violence and passion expressed in fights and conflicts of all types. In addition this reference to renegade literature features details to help with identification, including title, author, cover artist, publisher, date, and values for three grades of condition.

In 1980, a twenty-three-year-old student named Aaron Lansky set out to rescue the world’s abandoned Yiddish books before it was too late. Twenty-five years and one and a half million books later, he’s still in the midst of a great adventure. Filled with poignant and often laugh-out-loud tales from Lansky’s travels across the country as he collected books from older Jewish immigrants—books their own children had no use for—<em>Outwitting History also explores brilliant Yiddish writers and enables us to see how an almost-lost culture is the bridge between the Old World and the future.

The humble paperback packs a lot into just a few pages, and that's without even getting into the storyline. Every imaginable genre and subject, from romance and science fiction to sleaze and the traditional western are among the pocket-sized reads you'll find in this price guide. The appealing intense, often graphic, passionate and sometimes provocative cover art of paperbacks that you can't help but love are featured in 1,000 brilliant color photos in this must-have collectors reference.

When Nancy Goldstone bought a vintage copy of "War and Peace" to win a birthday bet with co-author Larry, the couple began their journey into the world of book collecting, meeting a hilarious cast of eccentrics along the way. Part travel story, part love story, and part memoir, this book provides a delightful love letter to book lovers everywhere.

This new edition provides readers with the information and values to carve a niche for themselves in a market where rare first editions of Jane Austen’s Emma and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone recently sold at auction for $254,610 and $40,355, respectively. Organized in 13 categories, including Americana, banned, paranormal and mystery, this guide discusses identifying and grading books, and provides collectors with details for identifying and assessing books in 8,000 listing

Book collecting has long been a popular hobby, and it continues to grow in popularity. This revised and updated edition of <i>The Official Price Guide to Books has everything a book collector needs. It features black-and-white photographs and includes an eight-page color insert of exceptional book covers.

The Official Price Guide to Books also includes:

· A history of the book trade<br>· Current market review and forecast<br>· Thousands of price listings covering hundreds of years of first editions
· Information about genre-collecting
· Advice on maintaining your collection
· Expert instruction on how to profit from bibliophilia
· A handy glossary and recommended reading list

Eighth edition, completely revised and re-set, with additional information and an Introduction by Nicolas Barker. Shaken, Unsophisticated, Harleian Style, Fingerprint, E-book, Dentelle. Can you define these terms? If not, this is the book for you! John Carter's ABC For Book Collectors has long been established as the most enjoyable as well as the most informative reference book on the subject. Here, in over 490 alphabetical entries, ranging in length from a single line to several pages, may be found definition and analysis of the technical terms used in book collecting and bibliography, interspersed with salutary comments on such subjects as auctions, condition, facsimiles and fakes, 'points', rarity, etc. This eighth edition has been revised by Nicolas Barker, editor of The Book Collector and incorporates additional words created by the introduction of web-based collecting. The ABC For Book Collectors retains its humorous character as the one indispensable guide to book collecting while also keeping us up-to-date with modern terminology.