This was a really interesting read, and I appreciated the author's reflection on how her interjecting herself into the story impacted and may further impact the lives and crimes of the people she interviewed.

As I'm currently working in a rare books archive, it was neat to see some of the names that come up in the provenance of our collection appear on the pages of a book I chose at random. Some are also mentioned in The Curse of the Marquis de Sade: A Notorious Scoundrel, a Mythical Manuscript, and the Biggest Scandal in Literary History by Joel Warner.

 I wish we'd been able to spend more time with Ken Sanders and explore the community that's formed around his shop, though I do understand that that was not the focus of the book. I might just need to road trip out to see his shop for myself, eventually, though I am more drawn to mass market paperbacks and other styles of print that lend themselves towards shoestring budgets, being tossed into backpacks, and being moved between states in old orange crates than collecting rare books.

John Gilkey is a strange and interesting man, with an profound variety of kleptomania. His world view is something I don't think I'll ever be able to fully understand. I really hope that the shops and individuals he's hurt are able to recover financially and emotionally from his thefts. I have quite a few of the shops marked down as places I'd like to patronize one day, even if only as a tourist.