Booknote: Warmly Inscribed

Title: Warmly Inscribed: The New England Forger and Other Book Tales
Authors: Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
Publication Information: New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-26268-X
Genre: Nonfiction
Subgenre: Books, book collecting
Pages: 215
Similar book: A Passion for Books, edited by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan.

This book was a pleasure to read. The authors, who are also novelists, write about their travels in the antiquarian book trade. Any reader who enjoys reading about books and those who collect them will enjoy this book. The book has seven chapters, including the title chapter telling the story of the New England Forger, which reads like a detective story. The authors visit the Library of Congress with their 8-year old daughter, which makes for an interesting visit. The chapter about the forger is the longest in the book, but the readers will not mind since the narratives are warm, engaging, and after a while the readers just get lost in the book. Readers don't have to know about how the antiquarian book trade works to appreciate this book because a lot of this book is simply about the love for good books. It is also about the people who collect them and those who sell them. But it is also about interesting people met in travels. I highly recommend this book. The authors have written other books about books, and if this one is any indication, those are just as good. I will likely try to find their other works in this area. This is the type of book to read with a cup of tea or hot cocoa. And the last chapter has a set of "outtakes," follow-ups to other stories, and a few other details that did not make it into the rest of the book. It makes for a nice way to close a very good book.