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Confessions of a Book Addict
St. Martin's Griffin
April 2005
432 pages
ISBN: 0312317263
EAN: 9780312317263
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Non-Fiction Memoir
In the rural Australia of the fifties where John Baxter grew
up, reading books was disregarded with suspicion, owning and
collecting them with utter incomprehension. Despite this, by
the age of eleven Baxter had 'collected' his first book -
The Poems of Rupert Brooke. He'd read the volume often, but
now he had to own it. This was the beginning of what would
become a major collection and a lifelong obsession. His book-hunting would take him all over the world, but his
first real find was in London in 1978, when he spotted a
rare copy of a Graham Greene children's book while browsing
on a stall in Swiss Cottage. It was going for 5 pence. This
would also, fortuitously, be the day when he first
encountered one of the legends of the book-selling world:
Martin Stone. At various times pothead, international
fugitive from justice, and professional rock musician, he
would become John's mentor and friend. In this brilliantly readable and funny book, John Baxter
brings us into contact with such literary greats as Graham
Greene, Kingsley Amis, J.G. Ballard and Ray Bradbury. But he
also shows us how he penetrated the secret fraternity of
'runners' or book scouts - sleuths who use bluff and guile
to hunt down their quarry - and joined them in scouring junk
shops, markets, auction rooms and private homes for rarities. In the comic tradition of Clive James's Unreliable Memoirs,
A Pound of Paper describes how a boy from the bush came to
be living in a Paris penthouse with a library worth
millions. It also explores the exploding market in first
editions. What treasures are lying unnoticed in your garage?
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