Travis McDade

I abandoned this book, so take my review with a grain of salt.

The meandering anecdotes never combined into a good narrative. It just felt like a bunch of strung together little stories, rather than one big one. Perhaps if I had continued reading, I would have found the big story (as one of the other reviewers suggests), but I read about a third of the book, and never found it.

While the stories were interesting, after a few chapters, they just started getting repetitive. And I lost interest. Might be good for people with a big interest in New York City or the book business.… (mer)

Told with McDade's usual mix of solid research and engaging storytelling, this account of a massive destruction of book art in 1980 is sad and depressing. Aside from the story particulars, the general theme is the same unveiled in his other histories: the general public, including most law enforcement, does not regard book theft and destruction as all that serious. Even when caught, most perpetrators receive minimal sentences. Until that changes, thieving from libraries will be viewed as a low-risk endeavor.

In that vein I can add that I have several times purchased a used book online, and discovered by the markings (or lack thereof), plus some internet searching, that the book is considered lost by the original library. It was not deaccessed. Booksellers have never reacted well to this news, instead becoming very defensive. The libraries, because we aren't talking rare volumes, sometimes seem polite but nonchalant to learn what became of their missing book, and that it will be returned to them. But one does what one must.… (mer)

I've read all of the works by this author, and I have to say this is probably the weakest. The construction of the story was so immediately straightforward that there was not even a hint of suspense or mystery. Labeling a legal decision by the thieves as awful signaled that the case would be lost, making any forward momentum of the narrative all but impossible. The story he tells in inherently interesting, so it is still a worthwhile read. It just struck as more of a police blotter than a story to draw the reader in. The thief, btw, is some kind of reporter in LA now, encumbered not at all for being a convicted destroyer of literary treasures. The author should have obtained some of that background, to find out why people don't care.… (mer)