Bibliomaniac?...not so much

I've told you before that I LOVE books! (See proof in this post and this post).

I really love to read but I also love the very earthy, aged, almost blooming smell of books.  I love the velvety feel of worn paper and the crisp, crinkling whisper of turning pages.  I just really love books themselves.  I don't think I could ever become an e-reader (or rather a reader of e-readers since the chances of my turning into a Kindle or some such machine are slim to none)...but I've never tried it so I guess I don't really know for sure.

Suffice it to say, I have a love affair with books.  That is why the title of this story drew me in from the moment I saw it on Goodreads.

So last week I read it and I thoroughly enjoyed it but it wasn't at all what I thought.  I won't ruin it for you (in case you are as enamored with the idea as I was) but this is the true story of a rare book thief.

The author plunges into the rare book world and I learned a lot that surprised me.  The most shocking thing that I learned was that collectors of rare books DON'T READ THE BOOKS!  Not just that they don't read them because they don't want to ruin them by use, but they don't read them because they don't care three straws about the story.

I can't understand that concept.  I just can't get my mind to close around the idea that I would spend thousands of dollars on a volume of literature which I don't care to read.  The value to most collectors is in the fact that the book is old and still in good shape.  They don't care if the book is written in German or Latin (who cares about the language if you aren't going to read it anyway) or if it is about botany or psychology, just so it is old, and rare and looks good.

I really thought I was going to relate to these book lovers.  I thought I would be whisked away in the world of buying and selling old stories.  But it turns out the stories simply don't matter, and I have to turn up my nose at that a bit.

I think I could enjoy owning a first edition or autographed copy of a tale that I loved.  But I can't see that I would care to own some ancient, expensive book that my heart wasn't connected to. 

Still, "The Man Who Loved Books Too Much" was a unique and compelling story (at least to me) even if I didn't turn out to be a bibliomaniac (I know it sounds like the kind of word I would make up, but I didn't).  Oh well.