Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore

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:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

If you like the first one, it is worth a read, 2008-12-28
I really enjoyed the first book in this three book series. Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World Like most reviewers I liked narrative style of the first one better. It told a cohesive story while presenting anecdotes in each chapter. This book has the interesting anecdotes, but much less of a thread to connect them. The story line in the first book is largely complete at the end, and leaves the narrative no place to go. Certainly read Used and Rare first. If you really enjoy it, then give this one a go. It is a very light, quick read, but will only satisfy those who are looking for more of the same found in Used and Rare.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

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:

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:

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:

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.

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