Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore

by Lawrence Goldstone, Nancy Goldstone

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Editorial Reviews
Product Description
More than a sequel, Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore is a companion piece for Used and Rare. Slightly Chipped details the warm and witty story of Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone's further explorations into the curious world of books. In Slightly Chipped, the Goldstones get hooked on the writings, correspondence and couplings of the Bloomsbury group; they track down Bram Stoker's earliest notes for Dracula; they put in a bid at a glamorous Sotheby's auction; they try out book collecting on the Internet; and they are introduced to hyper-moderns. Slightly Chipped is filled with the same anecdotes, esoterica and fun facts about the world of book collecting that so charmed readers of Used and Rare. The Goldstones have discovered new places to buy rare tomes and new eccentric personalities along the way, all presented in a style that Kirkus Reviews has called "evocative, compassionate and frequently hilarious."

Amazon.com Review
Who would have guessed that an innocent search for an inexpensive edition of War and Peace could lead to an all-consuming obsession? Nancy and Lawrence Goldstone's romance with rare books arose from just such a search and led them to a world they had never encountered before: the world of antiquarian books. They quickly found themselves infatuated with this quaint and curious world, and scoured the East Coast in search of first editions and rare books. This search, and the curious people they met along the way, is chronicled in their book Used and Rare. Their second book, Slightly Chipped, continues this exploration, taking us on tours of book fairs, libraries, and auctions. No longer the wide-eyed innocents, the Goldstones delve a little deeper into the book world: they explore facets such as fine printing and literary movements, pour over Bram Stoker's notes for Dracula, and puzzle over the incredible markup of hypermoderns. (Never heard of hypermoderns? They are collectible books recently published. A first edition of Sue Grafton's A Is for Alibi sold for $1,250 in 1998. Better check your shelves.)

Both the avid bibliophile and the casual reader will find things to enjoy in Slightly Chipped. For the collector, the Goldstones' discussion of the Internet's impact on collecting is illuminating, and their look at the hypermodern market is positively eye-opening. Plus, visits to such places as the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia and the Pequot Library in Connecticut will get any bibliophile's salivary glands going. For the casual reader, Slightly Chipped is as warm and engaging as Used and Rare; although the Goldstones have become sophisticated book collectors, there is still plenty of the ingenuous surprise and delight that made Used and Rare such a joy to read. They balance out the serious aspects of book collecting with a liberal peppering of literary anecdotes, ranging from William Morris's tyrannical leadership of the Kelmscott Press to the sexual proclivities of Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, keeping the tone light and the pace lively. All this packed into one volume makes Slightly Chipped a rare treat for book lovers of all types. --Perry Atterberry

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: 3 out of 5 stars

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

2 out of 5 stars

How far do we go in pursuit of our obsessions?, 2007-01-21
In "Used and Rare", the Goldstones wrote lovingly about their journey of discovery and adventure in the pursuit of a good used book; the book chronicled their descent from merely used book shopping to used book obsession. I rated that book 5 stars - and it deserves it. I like the Goldstones have become a bookaholic. But, in "Slightly Chipped", we see the other side of the Goldstones and those that have followed the same path. Obsession is never a good thing in the end; moderation is a much better goal.

In this book, the Goldstones find themselves behaving a bit badly at times during their quests; especially, when they are with some friends they introduced to the sport (so to speak). And here in lies the problem with this book - it reads like an obsession; not just the pursuit of books, but also in the pursuit of writing about the pursuit (they follow this book with at least three more about this obsession).

Now I admit that I might have become a bit jaded since the first reading of "Slightly Chipped" more than seven years ago (but, oddly, I wasn't in my review of Used and Rare which I read around the same time). Recently, I have re-evaluated my own obsession with books; I now question some of the very principles I have operated under for the last 20 years of book collecting. I question the need to own a copy of every book I have ever read - let's be honest with ourselves, not everything we read is good, some is down right bad; but in the end, even some of the books I have enjoyed and were good books are not necessarily worthy of owning for all time - always needing more bookcases, the ever more challenging task of moving them, the friction caused with a loved one who doesn't quite share your obsession, only your love of books.

So, my new found liberation from the obsession of book collecting (don't get me wrong, I can't get rid of a lot of books and still amaze my friends and irritate my loved ones), has me looking at this book as the glorification of taking a love too far; and thus, I find it flawed. Furthermore, I have lost the desire to read the Goldstones' later books.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1 out of 5 stars

Patronising twaddle, not for the bibliophile., 2007-01-03
I bought this book eagerly anticipating a journey into the world that I love. It transpired to be my most annoying purchasing dissapointment in quite a while. If you know anything about rare books, if you are in any way shape and form a bibliophile, then leave this one alone. No sooner do you start to read the text block than you realise there is nothing here that is based upon scholarship; everything is superficial. The book has so little substance it is clearly a book for people who are not book collectors. The Goldstone's have churned this out too soon after "used and rare", without too much thought and an apparent belief that everything they say is of interest, it is not. The annoyingly gossipy descriptions of book related matters (such as the Bloombsbury set's "who slept with who") is simply pathetic. I found myself skipping over paragraphs because the story line was so inevitable. My impression is that the Goldstone's had read the "gentle madness" books of Basbanes and were trying to do something similar. Unfortunately it didn't come off, this one is a real dud. If you havent read any of Basbanes yet you have a real treat waiting for you; go and type his name in the search box, enjoy.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1 out of 5 stars

Pretentious and distasteful, 2004-04-30
If you like name-dropping and looking down your nose at honest helpful people, you might like this book. The Goldstones seem pretentious and obnoxious. Too much of the book is filled with discusions of fashion and restaurants. I was hoping they'd talk more about books.

The book is a disservice to book lovers. I wish someone would write a book about book collecting that was infused with a love of books, rather than this blather. Save your money. Buy books by Nicholas Basbanes and John Dunning and John Baxter and Robert Wilson and Paul Collins instead.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3 out of 5 stars Slightly Chipped, 2003-05-10
Having first read Used and Rare I was disappointed in the quality of this work. This collection of essays is too disjointed, never really focusing on anything for long enough or maintaining a single theme. While the stories themselves are entertaining it just isn't on par with the rest of the Goldstones work. Having later read Out of the Flames I must say that the Goldstones need to stick to one topic per book and not to try another collection of essays without a common thread between them.

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1 out of 5 stars Strike Two, 2002-02-09
"Slightly Chipped", by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone is the second offering on what is supposed to be their continuing exploration of the world of book collecting. However, just as in their first book, "Used And Rare", the topic of books serves to provide these people with a continuous stream of targets for abuse. Please do not take to heart their description of what it is like to collect books nor of what type of people you will likely encounter while doing so.

To give you an idea of how far this book routinely strays from the alleged topic, what follows are direct quotes. The first takes place at a gathering at a library amongst a small group who are present to learn about very rare books. Any one of the volumes could be the subject of an entire book, but books are just a tangent in this brief and shallow memoir. While they do not hesitate to name the person they describe, and also list his occupation, I offer just a fragment out of the respect for privacy they show no concern for. "He was the kind of person whom Hollywood casts as the computer junkie who uses the Internet to lure young women to his apartment for.................." This is what they choose to describe as books from nearly a millennia ago are passed around the table. A book by William Morris is part of the evening's discussion. Mr. Morris produced some of the most prized limited editions of the late 19th Century. Here, that is almost a footnote when compared to his personal life, which rambles on for pages.

These people cannot even visit a bookstore that I know well, without adding this bit of irrelevant mean-spirited commentary on Torrington CT. ".thus providing the grimness and depressedness of Torrington for that much longer". Canton is described as, "hardly a town at all", and they quiz the owner on why he is located in such a difficult location. Our authors have moved to Fairfield CT. since their last book, an area that allows them to name drop the famous and wealthy, one of whom had to change homes because the light at The Yacht Club shone into his bedroom. What any of this has to do with books is beyond me.

Collecting books is a wonderful hobby. Shop owners generally will spend vast amounts of time, sharing their knowledge and love of books. I have been present when booksellers have taken a personal check for several thousand dollars on the final day of a show, from a person they never met, hours before they were to fly across the Atlantic to their shop in England. As a group, book collectors and dealers are wonderful people who share what Author Nicholas Basbanes has called, "A Gentle Madness". The authors do not enjoy this state of mind, rather, like the title of this book what rests upon their shoulders may be slightly chipped, however a large portion remains firmly in place.

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