Customer Reviews

Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I was so excited to see a new Goldstone book about book collecting out. I loved "Used and Rare" and reread it several times (and I'm not a rereader). While "Slightly Chipped" is quite good, and I would recommend it to book lovers, it doesn't quite have the excitement and thrill of discovery conveyed in "Used and Rare". There are some long digressions (one about Bloomsbury, one about mystery novels, one about the Southeby's auction of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's stuff) and less on the thrill of hunting down books and the excitement of discovering something new. There are also fewer descriptions of the eccentric book dealers (maybe the Goldstones have become wary of offending their booksellers?). It's a good book, an enjoyable book, but I just don't think it's quite as good or enjoyable as "Used and Rare".

"Slightly Chipped", by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone is the second offering on what is supposed to be their continuing exploration of the world of book collecting. However, just as in their first book, "Used And Rare", the topic of books serves to provide these people with a continuous stream of targets for abuse. Please do not take to heart their description of what it is like to collect books nor of what type of people you will likely encounter while doing so.

To give you an idea of how far this book routinely strays from the alleged topic, what follows are direct quotes. The first takes place at a gathering at a library amongst a small group who are present to learn about very rare books. Any one of the volumes could be the subject of an entire book, but books are just a tangent in this brief and shallow memoir. While they do not hesitate to name the person they describe, and also list his occupation, I offer just a fragment out of the respect for privacy they show no concern for. "He was the kind of person whom Hollywood casts as the computer junkie who uses the Internet to lure young women to his apartment for.................." This is what they choose to describe as books from nearly a millennia ago are passed around the table. A book by William Morris is part of the evening's discussion. Mr. Morris produced some of the most prized limited editions of the late 19th Century. Here, that is almost a footnote when compared to his personal life, which rambles on for pages.

These people cannot even visit a bookstore that I know well, without adding this bit of irrelevant mean-spirited commentary on Torrington CT. ".thus providing the grimness and depressedness of Torrington for that much longer". Canton is described as, "hardly a town at all", and they quiz the owner on why he is located in such a difficult location. Our authors have moved to Fairfield CT. since their last book, an area that allows them to name drop the famous and wealthy, one of whom had to change homes because the light at The Yacht Club shone into his bedroom. What any of this has to do with books is beyond me.

Collecting books is a wonderful hobby. Shop owners generally will spend vast amounts of time, sharing their knowledge and love of books. I have been present when booksellers have taken a personal check for several thousand dollars on the final day of a show, from a person they never met, hours before they were to fly across the Atlantic to their shop in England. As a group, book collectors and dealers are wonderful people who share what Author Nicholas Basbanes has called, "A Gentle Madness". The authors do not enjoy this state of mind, rather, like the title of this book what rests upon their shoulders may be slightly chipped, however a large portion remains firmly in place.

The content of this book has little to do with book collecting and more with attempts at name-dropping. Unfortunately, Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone come off as pretentious and boring. They spend a considerable amount of time discussing what people wear and how much they spend on dinner, but very little time talking about... books. After reading both their books (checked out from the library), I can only conclude that they have learned very little about the book world and they remain book-collector-wannabes.

The entire book is nothing more than an over-inflated magazine article possibly suitable for publication in Reader's Digest or maybe GRIT magazine. It would have been much better if they had actually written more about booklore and books and less about wardrobe and how much money they have or how they might scam a free meal. The book is full of pretense and sadly lacking in interesting content. I hope the Goldstones aren't this annoying in person.

Having first read Used and Rare I was disappointed in the quality of this work. This collection of essays is too disjointed, never really focusing on anything for long enough or maintaining a single theme. While the stories themselves are entertaining it just isn't on par with the rest of the Goldstones work. Having later read Out of the Flames I must say that the Goldstones need to stick to one topic per book and not to try another collection of essays without a common thread between them.

I had somewhat mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, I enjoyed the authors' sense of humor, modesty and easygoing, engaging writing style. (As with Used and Rare however, one must adjust to the unusual first person plural narrative, in which every quote is uttered by both of them and which yields such sentences as "We turned the book over in our hands.") On the other hand, it seemed as if there wasn't quite enough material to fill an entire book, which may have caused the authors to go off on a number of looonnnggg tangents/sidebars. Some of these I enjoyed, but others I found very dull (such as the Bloomsbury material, the stuff about Cudjo, and the biography of William Morris). I also thought that the opening of the book showed a bit of false humility, since, despite their disappointment in not easily finding Used and Rare in the Boston bookstores, the book obviously sold well enough to warrant their publisher's OK for a second volume on the same material. All in all though, a good book.

The Goldstone's first book completely seduced me into the world of book collecting, so I had high expectations for this sequel. Unfortunately, it's a dud. Instead of recapturing the excitement of discovery and the thrill of the hunt, the authors are didactic here. For pages and pages, they instruct the reader about the Bloomsbury Group and William Morris' Kelmscott Press. These are subjects in which if you already had any interest, you'd know far more than this pair. For the rest of us, it reads like filler. Worse, they devote almost an entire chapter to their attending the Edgar awards and come to the conclusion that, gasp, the event is poorly attended and tedious. Wow, I wish they could have said it in one sentence and saved the rest of us the trouble in reading about it. I found myself skimming the book after awhile. The one topic that they could have provided some insight on, but didn't--the effect of the Internet on book collecting--was sorely lacking. I got the feeling they were too lazy to really do any investigating or conduct interviews with people who might have something to say on the subject. The charm of the first book was learning along with the Goldstones, feeling like you were with them step by step. I don't know if they got tired of book collecting or decided that they didn't have anything left to learn, but the wonder and surprise that made Used and Rare so much fun is totally absent here. If you haven't already, pick up the first book and don't waste your money on this one.

I bought this book eagerly anticipating a journey into the world that I love. It transpired to be my most annoying purchasing dissapointment in quite a while. If you know anything about rare books, if you are in any way shape and form a bibliophile, then leave this one alone. No sooner do you start to read the text block than you realise there is nothing here that is based upon scholarship; everything is superficial. The book has so little substance it is clearly a book for people who are not book collectors. The Goldstone's have churned this out too soon after "used and rare", without too much thought and an apparent belief that everything they say is of interest, it is not. The annoyingly gossipy descriptions of book related matters (such as the Bloombsbury set's "who slept with who") is simply pathetic. I found myself skipping over paragraphs because the story line was so inevitable. My impression is that the Goldstone's had read the "gentle madness" books of Basbanes and were trying to do something similar. Unfortunately it didn't come off, this one is a real dud. If you havent read any of Basbanes yet you have a real treat waiting for you; go and type his name in the search box, enjoy.

This is the sequel to the Goldstone's first effort on book collecting, Used and Rare. The book goes back and forth between fascinating and boring as they veer away from their intended topic at times.

The opening chapter entails the Goldstone's first visit to Boston after the publication of Used and Rare. Besides going to the Spring Antiquarian Book Fair that they were there for, and some of their usual used book haunts, they also went to many new book stores in attempts to see how they were selling. As the book was being reviewed nicely, they hoped to even find some copies on display. To their dismay, the only store they found a copy at, had the book in the Literary Criticism section, what the clerk referred to as the garbage collection of the book store, where they put the books they didn't know how else to classify.

At the Fair itself, the couple meets a couple of Book Dealers from their area and make a decent sized purchase of UK First Edition Moderns (both Mrs. Bridge and Anatomy Lessons and Other Stories by Evan Connell, and Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night). They were especially intrigued by the more interesting and colorful dust jackets the UK versions had in comparison to the comparable US versions. Where this particular section slowed was in the lengthy quotation from Mrs. Bridge which seemed to serve as filler to inflate the book to it's just over 200 page length.

That is where the book falls to the level of an average read. When they discuss book collecting, used book stores, library sales, book fairs, auctions, and internet usage for this profession, the book flies by with beautiful descriptions. It is interesting, enlightening, and entertaining. When the book slides into history lessons on some of the specifics: Evan Connell, Bloomsbury, Churchill and the Windsors, it gets away from the topic and is very distracting. These sections are slow, and in all honesty, not very interesting. They are not the reason the reader has picked up this book. Personally, I only was able to read two of these such sections with any interest, one on the Edgar Awards, and one on Bram Stoker's notes for writing Dracula. I believe these were not boring to me because of my previous interest in these topics.

A particularly interesting topic they discover is that of Hypermoderns. That is, authors who are very recent who start off with low print runs, explode in popularity and see their early works elevate into low four figure collector's items while they are less than 20 years old. Examples were mainly those of mystery writers like John Le Carre or Sue Grafton's A is for Alibi. Mystery writers typically start off with print runs of less than 5000 copies in their first works. When a particularly successful series moves on, first press runs are up near the 100,000 mark. Quite a large group of people looking for that first work all of the sudden.

I am surprised at some of the comments the couple makes in regards to dealers, or other people they encounter; they are not hypocritical. If they have negative thoughts, they put them in writing. They don't appear to have any fear about possible future meetings or dealings with them.

If you are a fellow bibliophile, you will enjoy the book. There are several tips on finding books you're looking for, many descriptions of the different types of collecting, the various places and types of sales. You can tell from their descriptions of the books that they purchase that the Goldstones love books. Their comments are filled with adoration towards the authors, publishers, etc. They are also very kind towards certain dealers and stores that they admire.

When the book stays it's course (which I understand they did with Used and Rare), it is worthy of four stars. Unfortunately, it strays into the less interesting two star categories just as often. It is this combination that makes this an average 3 star effort.

Many of the Amazon reviews are, in my opinion, accurate relative to a degradation from USED AND RARE, the Goldstone's first book extolling their rare book exploits. However, SLIGHTLY CHIPPED is nevertheless a fun and enticing read.

In USED AND RARE, the Goldstone's are introduced to the world of used and rare (appropo title) books via a bet to purchase a substantive yet cheap birthday present. USED AND RARE throws the reader into the incredibly obscure but fascinating "cult" of rare book collecting. For the bibliophile, this is analogous to an "edge of your seat" mystery. For the unafflicted, perhaps just a different albeit fun ride. SLIGHTLY CHIPPED is the sequel (Book 2 of 3 in the series) to USED AND RARE and continues the Goldstone's journey toward "BiblioNhirvana." By the way, Book 3 in this series is WARMLY INSCRIBED (if interested).

SLIGHTLY CHIPPED finds the Goldstones as now seasoned collectors of rare books and dives into a variety of peripheral side stories which detracts from the "romance" of the original storyline. Perhaps the most interesting tangental story in this offering was the Goldstones venture to the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia. This foray was specifically to view the manuscript to Bram Stoker's DRACULA. They go into great detail in describing the Museum, Stoker's biohistory, and the manuscript itself. This is truly a fascinating story.

On the other side of the coin, we are subjected to the same level of detail regarding Bloomsbury. I'll not bore you with the detail of this equally obscure mini-series of books except to say that while potentially entertaining, it was out of place in this book. This type of off-tangent minutae is the only reason this book is "slightly chipped."

Another side story is the auction of the contents of the Duke and Duchess of Windor by Sothebys. This auction ultimately brought approximately $24 million and included a number of collectible books. The Goldstones go into great detail as to how they obtained admittance to the auction (as contract writers for "Biblio" magazine) to the procedural aspects of the auction itself. This discussion is interesting, if for no other reason than to glean the details of an auction of this size and notoriety.

One of the more poignant issues raised by the Goldstones is their discussion of the internet's dramatic and unexpected (at least to them) impact on rare book collecting. This reader picked up numerous resources to locate and secure first editions and other rare tomes. Its quite obvious that the internet is becoming the leader in used and rare book offerings.

This should be considered a solid followup to USED AND RARE albeit less entertaining. Still, if collectibles or general book knowledge is your cup of tea, you will absolutely enjoy this book. A word of caution: read these books in order 1) USED AND RATE and then 2) SLIGHTLY CHIPPED.

The Goldstone's "Used and Rare" is a gem of a book-collecting tome, and one that I recommend over "Slightly Chipped". Those who devoured U&R will be disappointed by the leadenness of their followup title, particularly as their former spark and enthusiasm for modern firsts isn't as evident in SC. Rather, they detail the truly uninteresting such as unexpected (to only them) Manhattan hotel's valet charges... Also, large portions of "Slightly Chipped" are devoted to quotations, a tactic that feels like mere filler in a volume this slim. Anyone captivated by "Used and Rare" will no doubt wish to pick up SC, but I'd suggest you wait until it appears in paper -- this is one hardback modern first that won't be increasing in value.