Customer Reviews

Memoirs of a Book Snake: Forty Years of Seeking and Saving Old Books

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a book about books. The author describes some of his more interesting finds in the book world.

This book was an interesting read. The author's wondefully breezy writing style was enchanting and fun to read. His anecdotes on various book finds made you feel as though you were right next to him.

So why the 3 stars?

This book took me exactly 2 hours to read! It is compact and has so few pages, that I felt a little discouraged from the start.

This author truly is entertaining with his stories and if his career spans over 40 years, surely he could have added a couple more (like maybe a 100 or so more) pages to the book. Just as I was starting to really get into it, the book ends.

I was also put off by the cost of the book. $20.00 for 2 hours of reading is expensive!

However, if you like books on books that are a fun read, this is the book for you.

Basically this is a vanity press offering prepared by the author to cash in on the rare book collecting momentum, earlier stimulated by Nicholas Basbanes. It is essentially a "chapbook". It is about 150 pages, which at it's list price comes to about $.15 a page or $.30 for both sides. (Covers included free of charge). It talks little about book collecting or even scouting except for the author's meandering about a few interesting trips and people met along the way. I strongly encourage those interested in book collecting to read ANY of Mr. Basbanes books before purchasing this overpriced narcissistic exercise.

I agree w/ the previous reviewer: this is really a wonderful book
but for the asking price, it's too brief. However, for those who love to "book search" it's delightful to read of the author's finds. Highly recommended, elegiac and wry.

As previous reviewers noted it is a brief book. It is however an enjoyable one. Where many books about books devolve into a "how much I paid and what it's worth" book this one rarely does. When he gets into the "how much I paid and what it's worth" it is almost always because there is a point behinds it. Mostly this book is the story of the people behind the books (authors, booksellers, other book snakes, etc). The only slightly annoying characteristic of this book is that it has a few too many pictures. Almost as if to fluff the book out a little. Certainly as someone who has a love of books he should know better.

Despite its length and pictures, I look forward to reading his second book.

The book was decent, but I don't think it was anything terribly special. I thought that, in addition to rambling on about certain points, the author jumped around in his time line. He would mention things that made no sense because what would have introduced you to that point doesn't appear for several pages.

Overall, not too bad, but not the best either.