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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I fail to see how this man's life is interesting., February 1, 2009
This review is from: The Error World: An Affair with Stamps (Hardcover)
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Without meaning to be cruel, I do marvel at the conceit of people who because they've had some success believe that a record of their lives is somehow interesting, and I mean really interesting. Interesting in the "I'm gonna write a book that is all about me" sort of way and not in the "h'mmm, now that's interesting" sort of way that one might feel upon seeing a newly issued postage stamp, for instance.
I realize that a majority of us feel about ourselves that we are special and nuanced and possibly worthy of adulation. At the same time however we are sane enough to recognize that pretty much nobody leads a life that cries out to be auto-memorialized because we comprehend that all but a teeny tiny fraction of people bob around the statistical line known as average.
Some people should write autobiographies because their lives have been truly extraordinary, or because they lived through and helped to shape certain historical events that had tremendous effects upon a people or country or science, and above all have led inordinately interesting lives. For instance, Charles Manson should write an autobiography, Mao Tse Tung should have, the Founding Fathers of the United States might have. President and General U.S. Grant did. Thomas Edison's autobiography might have been fascinating. Voltaire's was predictably scandalous, the Marquis De Sade's scurrilous. Sei Shonagon's was too brief as was Geronimo's. Robinson Crusoe's was brilliant if a bit contrived.
You get the message though: Only certain classes of people should write autobiographies.
Mr. Garfield is not in them, any of them. Although he seems a likable enough chap his life and interest in stamps aren't compelling enough to hold one's interest for very long, certainly not for the length of a book (and this book really isn't about collecting, it's about Mr. Garfield). On the other hand, if he'd been able to amass a world-class stamp collection that involved him in possible skullduggery or, say, having to first trek through the jungles of Borneo to take possession of a particularly rare species of orchid in order to make the trade. Alas, nothing of the sort took place, at least not in Garfield's world. All he did was cheat on his wife; spend prodigious amounts of money building a postage stamp collection; and then snag a writing contract as a means to, among other things, ultimately profit from his otherwise injudicious behaviour.
I believe this to be a weak premise for an autobiographical story poorly told. I believe it would have been interesting in a much truncated version as an article in The New Yorker.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting look at UK stamp collecting, February 2, 2009
This review is from: The Error World: An Affair with Stamps (Hardcover)
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In the 70s, my parents attempted to get me involved in stamp collecting. Figuring it would be a good way for an overly hyperactive child to pass the time, they purchased a bag of cheap stamps and an album for me to play with. I spent a few lazy, rainy Sundays looking at stamps and trying to match them to the images of the book, but collecting never took my fancy, and I resorted to playing with my Star Wars action figures not long after.
Error World is a memoir about one man's passion for collecting error stamps. Simon Garfield began collecting as a child, his passion spilling out into stamp collecting novels and catalogs, first issues and magazines. When his parents died, he gave up his hobby, only to take it up again when midlife crisis set in, and his marriage was beginning to fall apart. His hobby was his passion, and his secret, his affair costly. His marriage dissolved when he had another affair of the extramarital kind; the divorce required that he sell of his collection.
What begins as a memoir turns out to be a rather interesting history of British stamps (they invented the whole thing, after all), famous errors, and the passion of collecting. The book is a little weak when it crosses outside of the stamp collecting circle to explain why people collect, but overall it's an interesting historical and cultural look at a dying passion.
As someone who never really participated in this hobby, I wasn't sure if I'd like the book or not, but I did. I found it intriguing and wondered if I was perhaps missing out on something by not partaking. But I think this book will really be enjoyed by those who participate in collecting, rather than people like me. It's a good read, regardless.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well written, but wow --- I don't recognize this hobby, February 26, 2009
This review is from: The Error World: An Affair with Stamps (Hardcover)
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From a strictly literary standpoint, I enjoyed this book an awful lot. Garfield is a very engaging writer and sustains narrative very well. But holy buckets! I barely recognize the hobby he describes, and can feel the contempt he seems to have towards those collectors (such as myself) who are much more indiscriminate. The contempt oozes off every page, as he dismisses most stamp enthusiasts as mere "accumulators" rather than collectors. Well, excuse me --- if I had the disposable income, I certainly wouldn't mind putting together a collection on a par with Sir Gawaine Baillie's, but I'm just some poor schlub who spends maybe $50-$60 a month because --- dammit --- I love stamps. All of them! The impression I was left with was that somewhere along the line, Garfield forgot that this was supposed to be fun. Obssessions aren't necessarily all that enjoyable.
The general tone of the book left me wondering (like other reviewers have) just who this book is marketed towards. People who don't collect stamps will be bored beyond belief by the extended passages dealing with the history of stamps and the history of the errors market. Meanwhile, many stamp enthusiasts such as myself will feel alienated by Garfield's dismissiveness, not to mention what we regard as a perversion of what should be a rather nice, enjoyable hobby. So exactly is going to read this book? Probably about as many people as could afford to purchase the Blue Mauritius, I suspect.
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