Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World

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Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World

by Lawrence Goldstone (Goodreads Author), Nancy Goldstone

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 548 ratings · 85 reviews

When Nancy Goldstone bought a vintage copy of "War and Peace" to win a birthday bet with co-author Larry, the couple began their journey into the world of book collecting, meeting a hilarious cast of eccentrics along the way. Part travel story, part love story, and part memoir, this book provides a delightful love letter to book lovers everywhere.

Paperback, 225 pages

Published April 15th 1998 by St. Martin's Griffin (first published 1997)

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Mar 21, 2009 Eric_W rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-memoir

Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone, both novelists, tired of birthday competitions to see who could present the more extravagant gift. They decided to limit their spending to $20 maximum and that’s how they came into possession of a translation of War and Peace each had wanted to read complete with original illustrations and maps for $10. The book was used, of course, or “previously read,” as Cadillac owners might say, and so began a delightful obsession (or “gentle madness” that many of us suffer fro...more Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone, both novelists, tired of birthday competitions to see who could present the more extravagant gift. They decided to limit their spending to $20 maximum and that’s how they came into possession of a translation of War and Peace each had wanted to read complete with original illustrations and maps for $10. The book was used, of course, or “previously read,” as Cadillac owners might say, and so began a delightful obsession (or “gentle madness” that many of us suffer from) that had the pair trekking through used book stores and gradually becoming interested in the more rarefied atmosphere of expensive and rare books.

Their largest purchase by the end of this delightful book is a $650 copy of Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit. The Goldstones are clearly a literate couple who delight in the content of the books as well as the joy of owning a first edition “first state,” unlike the people who purchase books by the yard (Strand Bookstore in New York supplies books to these customers) or the customers of the bidder at an auction the Goldstones attended who was buying up collections of out-ofdate leather-bound law books and relabeling them “The Collected Works of William Shakespeare” to fill up shelves.

The Goldstones’ write with wit and love about the world of books, yet see the irony in the way dealers mark up prices depending on the clientele or the location. (One of the reasons dealers attend the New York Antiquarian Book Fair is to check prices of books they might have in stock, so as to hike the prices when they see titles going for higher prices than they had originally thought.)

Popularity and demand drives prices rather than an author’s fame or writing skill, so a first-edition Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs might go for $50,000 while a very good condition Bleak House first edition might go for only several hundred. These authors capture the idiosyncrasies and elitism of some of the dealers: “How did you find us?” complains one dealer whose sign was clearly marked on the outside window and in the yellow pages; “We control our advertising very carefully.” This is a delightful book, part memoir, part travelogue, part love story, and with a sequel that I am intending to track down immediately. . . . I did. The title is. Slightly Chipped

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Oct 05, 2009 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1990s, books

Two refugees from Wall Street retreat to western Mass. and discover the pleasures of shopping for used and rare books. There's really no plot, nor suspense, nor mind blowing conclusion ... just a fun and often funny relation of a series of generally happy afternoons spent in musty secondhand bookshops browsing for hardcover editions of modern literature. The authors meet a lot of nice and sometimes quirky book dealers, and they get to handle some extraordinary books (like Melville's edition of a...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Dana Stabenow rated it 3 of 5 stars

Larry and Nancy Goldstone sort of back into collecting modern first editions, by way of a hilariously extended effort for Nancy to find Larry a birthday gift for $20 or below. They have a bet on; he is to do the same for her. In the end, Larry gives Nancy a bath brush. She gives him a copy of War and Peace. It's a Heritage edition, the Maude translation, has maps of battles, fold-out illustrations and its own slipcase. Nancy found it for $10, and they spend three weeks talking about it. (She tot...more Larry and Nancy Goldstone sort of back into collecting modern first editions, by way of a hilariously extended effort for Nancy to find Larry a birthday gift for $20 or below. They have a bet on; he is to do the same for her. In the end, Larry gives Nancy a bath brush. She gives him a copy of War and Peace. It's a Heritage edition, the Maude translation, has maps of battles, fold-out illustrations and its own slipcase. Nancy found it for $10, and they spend three weeks talking about it. (She totally wins the bet, in case you were in any doubt.)

From that $10 copy of War and Peace Nancy and Larry embark on a grand tour of used and rare book stores, first in their west Massachusetts county and then expanding their territory to include neighboring states, New York City and Chicago, and then step up into book auctions. Along the way they meet a lot of characters, both in and out of books.

A bookseller tells them

Today, the autographs that are collected, the books that are collected...these are the authors that the collectors read in high school. They've always remembered them, they have a fondness for them*...of course, the people who were read in, say the forties and fifties are different than those who are read in high school today. Then we read Steinbeck and Hemingway and FAulkner. I don't know what they read today."

We did. It comes from having a succession of high school babysitters dragging their bookbags into your living room.

"They read Margaret Atwood," we said.

George stared at us. "That's appalling," he said.

Which gives you a pretty good idea what century most of the booksellers Nancy and Larry meet are inhabiting.

There are extended riffs on Anthony Trollope and Booth Tarkington and Sinclair Lewis and Charles Dickens and John Dos Passos, and for a book published in 1997 some jaw-dropping prices. Their education and expenditures proceed apace, until eventually they buy a copy of Bleak House for $700, with no second thoughts or buyer's remorse.

Reads almost like a novel. Thoroughly enjoyable and very informative, and I might actually get all the way through War and Peace if I owned an edition like theirs. I don't think I'd get through it on a Kindle.

*True. The only firsts I would even consider buying would be Shute, Heinlein and Heyer. I just checked Alibris, where I found a first edition of The Rolling Stones in a "fine" dust jacket for the bargain basement price of $2000. On the other hand, I found a first with dust jacket of The Unknown Ajax for twenty bucks. Couldn't find a first of Trustee from the Toolroom. I didn't have as much fun as Larry and Nancy did, though.
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Dec 03, 2008 LJ rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary_post_1945, writing_pair, chicago, massachusetts, new_york_city, new_york_state

USED AND RARE (Memoir-Goldstone-MA/NY/Chicago) – G+
Goldstone, Lawrence and Nancy – standalone
St. Martin’s Press, 1997, US Hardcover – ISBN: 0312156820

First Sentence: We came to book collecting because our birthdays fall eight days apart.

[Dust Jacket] Years ago, the Goldstones fled high-paying jobs in Manhattan to live and write in the Berkshires. Enough of an overachieving spark remained to ignite a contest when the search for inexpensive birthday gifts began. While Lawrence settled for a bath b...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Katie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-memoir, books-about-books

I love reading books about books. In Used and Rare, authors Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone are bitten by the collecting bug after one stumbles upon a copy of War and Peace as a birthday gift for the other. The concept that books have their own stories entrances the Goldstones, and they embark upon a journey to find books they already know and love in more valuable editions. Along the way, they also find new authors to read, as well as a number of fascinating book dealers who contribute to the Gold...more

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Mar 11, 2012 Gerry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Gerry by: Bought for me by Debz.

Just the book for the bibliophile, or if you are like me, the bibliomaniac.

It all begins with a search for a copy of 'War and Peace' (I could never get on with it I'm afraid despite a number of attempts) and escalates into a search for first editions of major authors, both American and English.

New England bookshops are raided and booksellers, who are all characters of one kind or another, are met. Purchase prices are paramount and, from small beginnings, a little like the acorn, a large, and occ...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Irwan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, finished

This book taught me about two kinds of book lovers. Those who love what the book reads, and think it is an added advantage if the book looks beautiful; and those who are more of a competitive affectation. I think I belong to the first group. I still don’t understand the second one. Even after reading this book. To be precise, I don’t understand the justification. Should you buy a book for 10.000 dollars? Just because you can?

This book is not trying to justify either. The authors start out as the...more This book taught me about two kinds of book lovers. Those who love what the book reads, and think it is an added advantage if the book looks beautiful; and those who are more of a competitive affectation. I think I belong to the first group. I still don’t understand the second one. Even after reading this book. To be precise, I don’t understand the justification. Should you buy a book for 10.000 dollars? Just because you can?

This book is not trying to justify either. The authors start out as the book lover of the first kind. They are also a successful writers, by the way, and this “crispy” and enjoyable prose really shows that. On one birthday occasion they were on a race to buy a nice present under $30. A nice hardcover book can be an option. This search ends up in an adventure in the book-collecting land. They nicely describe how they acquire more knowledge and practices about this hobby. Along the way they visited interesting bookstores, met with interesting characters, and to some extend tasted the honey themselves. The purchased some books with a handsome price, while still resonating the “why can this happen” question. On the last page they wrote:

“We loved our $700 Bleak House and our $650 Martin Chuzzlewit, but we also loved our $10 Josephine Tey, our $20 Andersonville, our $10 Another Country, our $10 War and Peace,.. The more we thought about it, the more we came back to our original view. You don’t really need first editions at all. They are just affectations, excuses for dealers to run up the price on you, charge you a lot of money for something that doesn’t read any better than any other edition.”

But of course, the illusion is always tempting …

I love this book for the engaging prose. They really do show, instead of telling you about the world of book collecting. Details of their pursuits giving me ideas to spice my affairs with books and to add a good agenda in my future traveling. Interesting characters they met along the way do it as well. And of course the act of writing those encounters is the subtle inspiration of all.

And since this is a book about books, I of course devour the pointers to books and authors all over the pages like: Nevil Shute (The Chequer Board, On The Beach), John Dos Passos (Midcentury), B. Traven (The Night Visitors), and Christopher Isherwood (The Berlin Stories). I stop making a list and promise to come back later if needs be. There is a quote of Sartre about Dos Passos, “I regard Dos Passos as the greatest writer of our time”: an endorsement enough to steal my attention.
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Nov 03, 2012 David Merrill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hurricane Sandy seems to have put me off on some odd tangents in my reading. I bought this book at Milford Library's ongoing book salemonths ago. It jumped out at me I'm not sure why. I found it had been signed by the husband and wife authors, who live in Westport. I stuffed it in my backpack and shortly after switched to a smaller one and totally forgot about the book. I needed the bigger packpack to transport all my electronics (ipod; two laptops, an old clamshell for dvd viewing and my Macboo...more Hurricane Sandy seems to have put me off on some odd tangents in my reading. I bought this book at Milford Library's ongoing book salemonths ago. It jumped out at me I'm not sure why. I found it had been signed by the husband and wife authors, who live in Westport. I stuffed it in my backpack and shortly after switched to a smaller one and totally forgot about the book. I needed the bigger packpack to transport all my electronics (ipod; two laptops, an old clamshell for dvd viewing and my Macbook Pro; my phone) to Panera Bread for recharging and found the book when I emptied the backpack. It was handy when I needed something to read. When you're in the dark with a flashlight, you don't go far to look and I was curious about the book.

It's about how the authors discovered used bookstores and their adventures visiting them. It's actually quite engaging if you're into used bookstores. How these two writers managed to never shop at a used bookstore until so late in life is beyond me. I remember being at my first library book sale at around 12 years old. Thinking back to the vintage SF paperbacks and Science Fiction magazines I saw there can make me crazy. I wish I could have bought everything. Think about what passed for vintage paperbacks in 1974! And there were hundreds of vintage SF paperbacks there! I even remember seeing the bootleg Ace editions of the Lord Of the Rings. If I'd only known then what I know now. I know I was already shopping at used book stores back then too. I still have most of what I bought from that period.

I'm starting to get into this book. It's the story of how a couple gets into book collecting together. They start out just buying used hard cover editions of the books they like and some they just want to own. Then there's the magical day when they buy their first collectible 1st edition. They take you through each rung of their indoctrination into collecting rare books. I have to admit, as I'm reading this I'm finding myself becoming jealous of their relationship. They discovered book collecting together and have very similar interests in what they read. One reads a great story or book and gets to pass it along immediately to the other. I know how exciting it is for me when I find a 1st edition copy of a book I really want at a good price. Imagine what it would be like to share that excitement with someone else! I can also see how dangerous this could be-- having two incomes to collect books with could be a problem. At least on my one income I have to show some restraint.

As I'm reading this book, I keep wanting to read other books they're mentioning. I've had Bleak House on my to read list forever. It's putting me in the mood for a Faulkner or a Steinbeck too. At the mention of Daphne du Maurier, it reminded me its likely the Time Travel book club will likely read du Maurier's The House On The Strand next month. I've pulled all of these off my shelf now, all of them paperbacks, probably none of them worth more than about $2.

The book escalates with each chapter until, at the end they end up at a Swann Gallery auction in NYC. They show restraint there, but do manage to buy a book. Their upper limit on spending on one book is way higher than mine, but that's, again, two incomes for you. I think the best piece of advice on collecting comes from the dealer, George Minkoff. "If you're willing to pass up a book because it's too expensive or not in good condition, eventually you'll find it for less money in better condition. What a collector needs most and usually has the least is self-discipline." And I would say patience. These are words to live by for a book collector:

About 4 years ago I finally gave up on owning my dream book, the Gregg Press edition of Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren. Back in the early 90's when I started looking at this book with the idea of buying it, it was selling for $250-$300 which was way out of my range at the time. By 2008 when I had pretty much given up on the idea of ever owning it, it usually showed up on Abebooks for about $1000. It's at between $650-$1000 now. I decided to settle for the Wesleyan University Press signed edition, limited to 300 copies. I found one on Abebooks for $150 and bought it. It wasn't more than about a year later the Gregg Press edition came up on Ebay for $250.00. It was in near perfect shape, which isn't that common with this book. It's so bulky, the binding can often let go and I've seen copies in that condition at conventions. $250 was out of my range and I'd so recently spent $150 on the Wesleyan edition. Why hadn't I waited?! at first I wasn't going to buy it, but over the week of the auction, no one was bidding on it. By the end of the week I'd decided it was too much of an opportunity to own the 1st hard cover edition of my favorite book at such a low price. I figured I could sell the Wesleyan edition. I decided to bid up to $350, since the book in this condition would go for at least $800 on Abe at the time. I was the only bidder. Three months later Delany was appearing at Icon on Long Island. I decided to go and have him sign my copy of Dhalgren, so now my Gregg Press copy is signed to me.

At the time I bought the Wesleyan edition there were numerous copies to choose from and I took the cheapest. I ended up with a very low number of the 300 and it came sealed in its original plastic. I just checked Abebooks and the only copy available is a shocking $550. There's one on Ebay starting at $275. I never did sell my copy. Maybe my impatience wasn't such a bad idea after all. I'll have to watch the Ebay auction and see.(less)

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Jul 06, 2010 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

This was a lovely book by a pair of entirely unpretentious book collectors whose day job as writers obviously helps them to write more evocatively than some other book memoirists. What I especially enjoyed about this account was the particular glimpse it offered of the book world just before the Internet's intrusion. Reading about how dealer's would price books by comparing other dealers' copies at book fairs, or how auctions were overrun with people who had no other way (apart from the less pop...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Diane rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, bookishness

This is a book for anyone who dreams of becoming a book collector. Nancy and Lawrence Goldstone didn't know anything about rare books when they started visiting antiquarian book shops -- all they knew is that they wanted nice hardback copies of the authors they loved to read. But they asked lots of questions and slowly learned the lingo, and we learn along with them. We discover the meanings of the terms "foxed" and "bubbling," and that "good" means bad in the rare book business. (The items labe...more

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Nov 21, 2010 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-on-books, book-collecting

There were many things in this book that were new to me. The various authors they discussed along with what they looked for when searching to buy used and rare books. They explained many things that are important when purchasing used and rare books.

Their adventures may seem over the top to the reader as this husband and wife team were obsessed with building a huge library of used and rare books in hardcover. They traveled all over and through the process created a life long passion that they bot...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Nathaniel rated it 3 of 5 stars

I took this book out of the library. I wouldn't buy it, or probably even read it again, but as someone wanting to go into rare book librarianship, I found it a good starting place to get into other, better books. However, this comes with several caveats:

1. If you are an actual rare book dealer or familiar with that world already, you will probably, at best, dislike this book. The Goldstones are definitely not professionals, and they go about book collecting in a way that professionals in the fi...more I took this book out of the library. I wouldn't buy it, or probably even read it again, but as someone wanting to go into rare book librarianship, I found it a good starting place to get into other, better books. However, this comes with several caveats:

1. If you are an actual rare book dealer or familiar with that world already, you will probably, at best, dislike this book. The Goldstones are definitely not professionals, and they go about book collecting in a way that professionals in the field will find, at best, pitiable.

2. If you don't enjoy hearing about Northeastern yuppies finding a new hobby (complete with hotel, dinner at fancy restaurants, and conversations with the babysitter), don't read this book.

3. If you don't care to hear about book shops in Massachusetts and New York in the mid-1990's, don't read this book. (Part of the book's appeal for me is that I'm a native of the Berkshires and many of the shops/places that they described were places I have actually been.)

4. Finally, the biggest fault of this book is that Goldstone goes out of his way to turn all of the people he encounters into "characters", which as a creative writing teacher, he really should know better than to do. The decision to phonetically show one particular shopkeeper's New Zealand accent every time he speaks is particularly unfortunate, and some of the descriptions of the dealers themselves are written in a way that has been misconstrued by other reviewers as condescending.
Because I grew up in this part of New England and understand how people like this think, I don't think it's condescending so much as lacking in perspective - these are obviously financially stable, socially isolated people with way too much time on their hands who think they're normal when they're not (just like every other yuppie Boomer in New England)...and it shows. People like this make value judgments because they're psychotically insecure, poorly socialized, and don't understand the human element of what they say/do/write. I found it familiar and it didn't bother me more than a little bit.
But if you're easily offended by this sort of writing/thinking, don't even think of picking up this book.

In all, the Goldstones come off as quintessentially clueless people who most Americans might find more than a bit unsympathetic, and who mostly stumble upon bits of good information offered up to them by dealers and sometimes seem wholly ignorant of the human element of their new hobby. Their saving grace is that they write in a super-accessible, informal style that's easy to read, parroting these bits of information verbatim. For a novice, some of this information - particularly a list of recommendations of other books to read on the subject midway through - was particularly helpful, as was other information such as describing a book auction. Obviously, those who are past the newbie stage will find little that impresses them here, so this is really more of a work for fellow "tourists". Since most readers interested in a book like this are likely to fall into this category, however, there's plenty of upside for reading this book if you're still reading this review. Just expect, at best, a fun ride with little substance. (less)

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Jun 13, 2012 Linda rated it 3 of 5 stars

USED AND RARE: TRAVELS IN THE BOOK WORLD
WARMLY INSCRIBED: THE NEW ENGLAND FORGER AND OTHER BOOK TALES.
It all started when Nancy Goldstone searched for a copy of “War and Peace” for Lawrence’s birthday. She didn’t want a paperback, or a hardback with small print and no illustrations, and finally found a nice illustrated copy in a used bookstore for $10. (They had decided to stop giving each other expensive gifts.) This started them on their search for other books that they wanted to read, bu...more

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Nov 11, 2010 B-MO rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People interested in the book world

One of the best 'books about books' I have read. When I say best, in this case, I actually mean easiest to read. :) 'Books about books' are notoriously hard to read/enjoy, but this one wasn't that bad of a study exercise.

This one is actually told as a narrative story from the point of view of a couple as they navigate from book-loving novices to near-experts in the rare book field. The book takes you through their progression by starting you at their first purchase at a used book store all the w...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Nicholas Griffith rated it 2 of 5 stars

Ever wonder what dealings in the used and rare book world are like? If so, then don't buy this book. That being said, if you're intrigued by the misadventures of a yuppie couple from the Berkshires, explaining their utter amazement at how fun used book stores are, than perhaps this book is right up your alley. The only reason I kept reading was the descriptions of used book stores, which are basically porn for me. Otherwise, it was an uneventful read. But maybe I'm being unfair; after all, they...more

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Mar 22, 2013 John G. rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book, it was a rather light and quick read, haven't read anything else like it. It was interesting gaining insight into the world of book collecting and some of the snobbery and elitism that is involved in the high end part of it. What I enjoyed the most was the authors (who by the way, are a husband and wife team) talk about authors and books I wasn't aware of and their love or good writing shined through, even more so than the acquisition of a personal library. You want somethin...more

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Apr 08, 2008 Betsy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own

I'm not normally a fan of nonfiction, but I've read this book repeatedly. It's a fascinating look at how a book-collecting obsession begins. I can identify.

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Dec 26, 2012 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, books-about-people-who-love-books

A close friend of my family’s is an antiquarian bookseller, so when I picked up this book I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with the subculture that it portrays. It was interesting to take a closer look at the world of used and rare books through this memoir of a husband and wife becoming engrossed in a new hobby. The descriptions of the booksellers themselves gave life to the otherwise somewhat mediocre memoir — from the eccentric couple who runs a used bookstore out of their barn to the high brow...more

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Dec 23, 2011 Sharon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir

I didn't want to put this book down.

Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone take us right along with them on an accidental book collecting journey that starts with a birthday present wager over who can get the best gift for less than $20. Nancy wins with a $10 rare edition of "War and Peace" ... and a new hobby is found.

The Goldstones meet some fascinating characters along the way, some of whom sell rare books out of barns and some of whom are so snooty that they won't allow the Goldstones to look at the...more

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Mar 02, 2011 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoy reading books about books and discovered this one right after I finished reading A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas A. Basbanes. The Goldtones leave their up-scale life in Manhattan to move to the Berkshires and collect books. There must be something in the water in Massachusetts. The book is full of insider stories about every which way that you can buy books and everyone who buys and sells them.

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Apr 04, 2009 Spyder rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

I picked this up an amazing little booksellers in Minneapolis, MN while on tour. I have always enjoyed the 'Books about Books' genre and this volume made it clear that it is my favorite.

Used and Rare chronicles the decent of two minor authors into the obsessive world of bibliophilia and back again. Well written, witty and informative I not only learned about book collecting's finer points that could take years to learn by making expensive mistakes, I got to know why I am the way I am when I chec...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Irene rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, books-about-books

Fun read about the seedy world of rare/antiquarian book dealing. That was a joke. I learned much about this business, and it IS a business. One memorable quote is that "the cost of a rare book has nothing to do with literary merit."

People who collect first editions, fisrt issues, whether inscribed or not, for the sake of collecting without any thought to the content of the books, are seriously mental. This book has given me a new attitude: If I ever decide to start collecting, I'll stick to book...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Marsella rated it 4 of 5 stars

I looooved this book. It got me hooked on the art of collecting books. I love how the authors stumbled and bumbled there way into finding used books which led them to rare books. I was salivating over original manuscripts of Charles Dickens. Did you know he wrote "A Christmas Carol" (my favorite)in three weeks because he was on the verge of bankruptcy? It was a mammoth hit then and remains today.

Collecting first editions for a treasured library collection is nice but as Nancy Goldstone pointed...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir-and-biography

This book reminded me why I will never easily give up physical books for ebooks. I loved (virtually) going along with the Goldstones to the out of the way used book stores and browsing the shelves with them. I do it myself when I go into the city, and it is such a rush to find something I have been looking for at a price I can afford. (I am not wealthy and could not buy what the Goldstones do. LOL) The world of books is special and very sensory to me. I love holding an old treasured book in my h...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Julie (julie37619) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-about-books, books-i-own

After I read Mockingjay, I knew it was the perfect time to pick this one up. The topic (used and rare books) is something I'm interested in, but with a little less emotional devastation. It's taken me a while to finish, even though it's very short (212 pages in paperback) because I've been reading a bunch of fiction along with it. But it was the perfect post-Mockingjay read. And the good news is that (at my favorite used book store, obvs) I found some other titles by the authors.

Basically the bo...more

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May 18, 2008 Nola rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: readers, booklovers, collectors

Recommended to Nola by: Me! (found browsing titles at library)

Shelves: nonfiction-literary

I checked this book out from the library expecting one thing, and found something quite different. Used and Rare is the story of a couple's journey from book reader to book collector. The writing is clear, and the sense of humor excellent. Soon we, too, are drawn into this world, which answers one of the questions I have always wondered - who would pay a couple thousand dollars for a book?

One of the most interesting things about this book is that it is written not by one author but by two - an...more I checked this book out from the library expecting one thing, and found something quite different. Used and Rare is the story of a couple's journey from book reader to book collector. The writing is clear, and the sense of humor excellent. Soon we, too, are drawn into this world, which answers one of the questions I have always wondered - who would pay a couple thousand dollars for a book?

One of the most interesting things about this book is that it is written not by one author but by two - and we are never quite sure by who. At first, I found all the 'we's distracting, and it was certainly confusing to hear questions asked by 'one of us'; rarely did we find out which one, exactly, it is. I suppose this was a result of the commitment of the two to point the finger at just who was asking the most ridiculous or most intelligent questions, as judged by the book dealers they encountered. It is an interesting writing style, not one I'm overly partial to, but I will give them credit - they made it work in this book. After the first few chapters, I was able to drift right into the flow of their story.

And their story takes them from rural Berkshire to urban New York, Boston, and Chicago in search of great books. In the beginning, they turn up their noses of purchasing something - even a book - that is not 'new'. Soon, however, they are traveling around in search of used books. They develop their own taste and style, and I enjoyed learning about why they preferred various authors and versions. They detail their enjoyment, too, of examining books that are out of their price range - such as one of the original serials for a Dickens novel. And we drop our jaws in disbelief along with them as they learn just how much a first edition Tarzan novel sold for, even as we wonder, why does Tarzan take precedence over the classics? (And what, we wonder, does that say about our culture? Along with the fact that, since publication of this book, a Harry Potter first edition exceeds even that?)

Used and Rare is a well written and enjoyable book that every booklover should read at least once, whether or not they intened to invest in collectables. Lighthearted, fun, and rather humerous, it provides an excellent look at the world of books both used and rare.(less)

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May 20, 2008 Trin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: booksaboutbooks, american-lit

Nonfiction account of a Massachusetts couple’s sort of backward stumble into—and subsequent growing obsession with—rare book collecting. It’s well-written and covers many of the things that make a bibliophile like me drool—along with many of the things that drive me crazy. We’re talking books selling for $50,000 and more, and all the reasons why I will never, ever be able to own a nice, original hardcover of The Great Gatsby. The Goldstones seem rather baffled and appalled by this, too; however...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you love books, you will love this book. You go on a journey with Nancy and Lawrence learning about books, bindings, editions, trends. The thrill of the hunt for a certain edition, gobbling up information like a child - this book is entertaining, interesting and informative. Once you've zoomed through these pages, you'll want to continue the adventure with the authors through their next books: Slightly Chipped, Out of the Flames, etc.

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Sep 18, 2008 Holly Booms Walsh rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, nonfiction

A mildly entertaining read of how a husband and wife got drawn into the world of rare books. It has some nice snippets of facts about writers, and things you may not have known about what makes a book rare or collectible. Many of those things (bookman's terms, publishing historical information, condition, rarity, etc.) I had already learned from John Dunning's wonderful Bookman mysteries, which I far recommend over this book. I really liked the beginning of the book and how their love affair wit...more

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Feb 08, 2013 James Sorensen rated it 5 of 5 stars

A great read for all bibliophiles. The book starts with an agreement to spend only $10 or less on future Birthday presents to each other. When Nancy Goldstone looks for a nice, inexpensive copy of "War and Peace" for her husband she finds that it might not be as simple as she thought. This leads to the discovery of many how many used book stores there are in the Boston area and also Chicago.

Lawrance and Nancy soon discover the world of the true book collector: modern 1st editions, antiquarian bo...more

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About Lawrence Goldstone

Lawrence Goldstone is the author of fourteen books of both fiction and non-fiction. Six of those books were co-authored with his wife, Nancy, but they now write separately to save what is left of their dishes.
Goldstone's articles, reviews, and opinion pieces have appeared in, among other publications, the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Hartford Courant, and Berkshi...more

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Books by Lawrence Goldstone

Out of the Flames: The Remarkable Story of a Fearless Scholar, a Fatal Heresy, and One of the Rarest Books in the World

Deconstructing Penguins: Parents, Kids, and the Bond of Reading

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