David A. Randall

Less personal information than one often encounters in this genre, being wholly about sales he made. Which in itself is fantastically interesting, although it can become a bit long-winded where he gives overly-long excerpts from his auction catalog listings. He has little good to say about librarians ("the union badge of graduate school degrees as a prerequisite to a library career is a growing, cancerous thing"), which is somewhat ironic given he left the book business to become a librarian show more himself. show less

The stilted style is hard to wade through but the point seems to be that book collecting is a matter of book condition, first editions, points, etc. Information about other references are useful

I read a library copy of this book several years ago, and finally got around to acquiring a copy for my library. It is a keeper.

Introduction to the subject. Covers what makes a book "rare" and how to find it. Also covers some "points" of a first edition.