On Book Collecting

Here’s my latest column for the Washington Independent Review of Books—admitting my obsession with the idea of book collecting and chatting with a real book collector, Doug Greene of Crippen & Landru, a Norfolk-based publisher specializing in short mystery fiction.

The opening paragraphs of the column are below:

Most folks who know me might bet that Facebook is my number-one distraction of choice; in fact, I’ve hinted elsewhere about some small addictions in that direction.

But I’m here today to admit a sometimes-stronger obsession. Just as I once visited used bookshops (and still do) looking for hard-to-find titles — rare firsts and limited printings and special editions — now I browse endlessly online, where even some of the scarcest (and priciest) books are only a much-too-easy click away….

Read the full column here.

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