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And when you’ve read 84 Charing Cross Road, what is more natural than to polish off Used and Rare, Slightly Chipped and Warmly Inscribed in quick succession?
I see from the archives that I must have neglected to record my first reading of Warmly Inscribed, which is annoying, but most of what I said for the first two hold true for this one as well – the difference, if there is one, is that larger sections of the book are dedicated to single “stories”, such as that of the New England forger of the sub-title. This is in no way a bad thing, and like the two first, Warmly Inscribed is a bit of a must-read for any bibliophile.
 
I suddenly got the urge to read some books-about-books, and so I reread Used and Rare and Slightly Chipped by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. One reviewer called the first book “A Year in Provence for book-collectors”, which is not far off. The Goldstone’s become book collectors (as in people who buy specific editions of books rather than people who own lots of paperbacks) by accident, so to say, and the two books chronicle their initiation into this strange new world. Now, to me, of course, pretty much everything to do with books holds a fascination that will make me suffer through even the driest language. However, with the Goldstones we are spared that predicament, as the prose carries you along in the most admirable manner. If you are a beginner at the book-collecting game yourself you can learn alongside the authors, but even if you’ve been at it for a while you’re likely to learn something new – and at the very least you can have a good chuckle at mishaps and anecdotes.
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