The Man Who Loved Books Too Much

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession is a 2009 non-fiction book by American journalist and author Allison Hoover Bartlett. The book chronicles the crimes of John Charles Gilkey, a book collector who utilized check and credit card fraud to steal a number of rare manuscripts and first editions from dealers. Bartlett also covers the efforts of Ken Sanders, a bookseller and part-time investigator of book theft, as he attempted to track down Gilkey and bring him to justice. The book received mixed reviews, with reviewers praising Bartlett's research and inclusion of smaller vignettes about other people notably obsessed with books, but criticizing her attempts to draw conclusions that aren't supported by the narrative as well as her over-frequent injection of her own self into the story.