Miller's: Collecting Books

Rating:
Summary: "Modest treasures await on the path less travelled."
Review:
This book was published in 1995,and reprinted in 1996,1998,2000 and 2001.So there seems to be a demand for this book and thus somewhat of a surprise to me that to date there have been no Customer Reviews posted here at Amazon.This could be for a couple of reasons.Possibly the amount of people who enjoy 'books about books'may be much smaller than one would imagine.I know for sure ,I seldom see any at book sales,book fairs,or in fact,at any second use market.It just came to mind,that I don't recall any mention of this type of book made in this book except for a few books about collecting in the back of the book under the heading, General Introduction.Another reason may be that this book is very heavily slanted to British books,only a slight bit about collecting books in America,and almost nothing about the rest of the world.The book has very little to say about the great enjoyment of the large number of people of modest means who enjoy collecting books or the thrills of finding a book one has been searching for and finding it when and where least expected. I read a lot,own about 6000 books and love bookstores,and any kind of book sale,but must admit I am not a collector as portrayed in this book.I guess that's okay as
i am sure there are astute collectors who have bought expensive "collectible' gems who haven't or don't intend to read them.All that said, I did enjoy the book for the information it gave on the methods and technical details involved over the years pretaining to printing ,binding, illustrating and overall manufacture of books.
Fortunately,the rarity,cost and lack of accessibility of many of the books mentioned and illustrated in this book does not put them out of reach as they are available at low cost in different editions.
There is a Glossary at the back of the book,but there are much more detailed ones elsewhere.
The book is well constructed,on quality paper and nice to spend a couple of hours glancing through ;but hardly a reference that will be consulted very often.
My title came from page 117 and I think it says as much about collecting books as the fact that there is some very rare ,very high priced copy of the same book locked away in some secluded cabinet or vault.When it comes to collecting the adage "To each his own" applies,Thank God.