Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World

Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone

A treasure of a book for those who have an interest in the unique world of rare books. Nancy and Lawrence take you on their personal journey as they discover the world of used and rare book collecting. It all starts out simple enough: the search for the perfect birthday gift that costs less than $20 ends up yielding a used, illustrated copy of War and Peace. From there, these two writers by trade begin making the rounds of used book stores and rare book auctions, and the fury and obsession of collecting begins to take root. Written as a sort of memoir of their adventures into this new world (new to them anyway), they take you along as they meet and befriend a variety of very eclectic bookshop "characters" (and great characters they are) that take this business of rare books very, very seriously. If you've ever had the itch to start collecting, this just might be what you need to get you going - or to convince you to stay far, far away LOL. Either way, it's an interesting read.