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A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict
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?
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?
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
32 people are currently reading
2499 people want to read
About the author
John Baxter
226 books123 followersJohn Baxter (born 1939 in Randwick, New South Wales) is an Australian-born writer, journalist, and film-maker.
Baxter has lived in Britain and the United States as well as in his native Sydney, but has made his home in Paris since 1989, where he is married to the film-maker Marie-Dominique Montel. They have one daughter, Louise.
He began writing science fiction in the early 1960s for New Worlds, Science Fantasy and other British magazines. His first novel, though serialised in New Worlds as THE GOD KILLERS, was published as a book in the US by Ace as The Off-Worlders. He was Visiting Professor at Hollins College in Virginia in 1975-1976. He has written a number of short stories and novels in that genre and a book about SF in the movies, as well as editing collections of Australian science fiction.
Baxter has also written a large number of other works dealing with the movies, including biographies of film personalities, including Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, George Lucas and Robert De Niro. He has written a number of documentaries, including a survey of the life and work of the painter Fernando Botero. He also co-produced, wrote and presented three television series for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Filmstruck, First Take and The Cutting Room, and was co-editor of the ABC book programme Books And Writing.
In the 1960s, he was a member of the WEA Film Study Group with such notable people as Ian Klava, Frank Moorhouse, Michael Thornhill, John Flaus and Ken Quinnell. From July 1965 to December 1967 the WEA Film Study Group published the cinema journal FILM DIGEST. This journal was edited by John Baxter.
For a number of years in the sixties, he was active in the Sydney Film Festival, and during the 1980s served in a consulting capacity on a number of film-funding bodies, as well as writing film criticism for The Australian and other periodicals. Some of his books have been translated into various languages, including Japanese and Chinese.
Since moving to Paris, he has written four books of autobiography, A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict, We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light, Immoveable feast : a Paris Christmas, and The Most Beautiful Walk in the World : a Pedestrian in Paris.
Since 2007 he has been co-director of the annual Paris Writers Workshop.
Baxter has lived in Britain and the United States as well as in his native Sydney, but has made his home in Paris since 1989, where he is married to the film-maker Marie-Dominique Montel. They have one daughter, Louise.
He began writing science fiction in the early 1960s for New Worlds, Science Fantasy and other British magazines. His first novel, though serialised in New Worlds as THE GOD KILLERS, was published as a book in the US by Ace as The Off-Worlders. He was Visiting Professor at Hollins College in Virginia in 1975-1976. He has written a number of short stories and novels in that genre and a book about SF in the movies, as well as editing collections of Australian science fiction.
Baxter has also written a large number of other works dealing with the movies, including biographies of film personalities, including Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, George Lucas and Robert De Niro. He has written a number of documentaries, including a survey of the life and work of the painter Fernando Botero. He also co-produced, wrote and presented three television series for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Filmstruck, First Take and The Cutting Room, and was co-editor of the ABC book programme Books And Writing.
In the 1960s, he was a member of the WEA Film Study Group with such notable people as Ian Klava, Frank Moorhouse, Michael Thornhill, John Flaus and Ken Quinnell. From July 1965 to December 1967 the WEA Film Study Group published the cinema journal FILM DIGEST. This journal was edited by John Baxter.
For a number of years in the sixties, he was active in the Sydney Film Festival, and during the 1980s served in a consulting capacity on a number of film-funding bodies, as well as writing film criticism for The Australian and other periodicals. Some of his books have been translated into various languages, including Japanese and Chinese.
Since moving to Paris, he has written four books of autobiography, A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict, We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light, Immoveable feast : a Paris Christmas, and The Most Beautiful Walk in the World : a Pedestrian in Paris.
Since 2007 he has been co-director of the annual Paris Writers Workshop.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
January 3, 2019
I think a number of people (myself included!) might have thought that this would be a book about literature — but then I also later realised that the title (A Pound of Paper) and its subtitle (Confessions of a Book Addict) did not really promise that at all. Instead, what we have here is a kind of biography by ex-patriate Australian John Baxter, which deals specifically with the author’s addiction to book collecting! And what a strange and disturbing world it is! Anyone interested in this subject will be more than rewarded enough by its many revelations.
This strange world is based on finding and acquiring books as objects regardless of their value as literature or antiquity (although neither of these qualities are necessarily excluded); but including comics, pornography, science fiction, whatever. Much of the fun and obsession centres on getting those publications (whether specific editions, or by just one special author) for as little money as possible, but which can (if you know what you are doing) be worth tens, hundreds, even thousands of times more than what they cost the collector. Obviously a lot of specialised knowledge is required, and even more cunning to ferret out, discover, and/or hoodwink the unwary in parting with their possession(s) for much less than what might be obtained in specialist book markets. Hardly an atmosphere which would encourage long and lasting friendships…
Baxter explains how he got caught in this obsession (starting with his interest in the works of Graham Greene), and spells out the compulsion which is generated to ever expand one’s collection (or indeed collections — why limit oneself?). Even when involved in other necessary activities (such as working, living, etc.) one needs to be forever on the alert for what may or may not be happening in this area. A true book “runner” (as they are called) needs to have his or her antennae working permanently to pick up even the slightest suggestion of a possible find, no matter when or where one might be. Along the way, of course, the author often finds himself in the company of well-known and interesting people, and he name drops quite a lot… Still, overall, he maintains a rather cheerful if not cheeky rapport with most of the people he meets. Even so, he can’t help but offer a snide remark (or several!) on just about everyone and everywhere he had been in his peregrinations (Australia, England, America, France). There are also three Appendices (one on Lists; one on “What you would save if your house were on fire”; and one on choice eBay listings) all from the point of view of typical Book Collectors, which ordinary readers might find both provocative and amusing. It’s all rather wide-ranging, but in the hands of Baxter, all in all, I enjoyed the ride: it is a fun read!
Australians might find the first part of this two-part “biography” of particular interest: it deals with Baxter’s early life in Australia (where his obsession began) and his growing disdain for its quality of life (or lack of it!) which would result in his joining in with the cultural brain drain of the early seventies. Baxter is scathing (but accurate, in my opinion) in his assessments. For example, of Australia in the fifties, he writes: Catholicism is a creed of hot countries. In the world’s remoter corners, where the blood of belief flows sluggishly, it has a tendency to fester. Rome would hardly have recognised Australian Catholicism. Presided over by a fiercely Fenian cardinal named Gilroy, its roots ran directly to Dublin, which sent us quantities of ‘priests with a past’, unchristian Christian Brothers given to paedophilia and flagellation, and Sisters of Mercy neither sisterly nor merciful.
He is just as scathing later: … Australia felt to me like the country Tennyson wrote about in ‘The Lotus Eaters’ — ‘a land / In which it seemed always afternoon’. Enthusiasms evaporated in the hot dry air. It was as if, because of some genetic abnormality, Australians lacked the ability to communicate on any but the most concrete level. One could discuss facts incessantly, but passions induced an embarrassment that rendered them literally speechless. It would be decades before this intellectual lockjaw passed.
I would like to think that, for a while, it appeared that the Australian cultural desert eventually began to bloom in wonderful and unexpected ways; yet the above passages resonated ominously with me. Our current (2014) right-wing, neo-conservative government seems intent on dragging Australia back into the past as represented by those passages quoted above, cutting back on the very cultural, humanistic and scientific developments that took such a long time to establish and nourish… If this government remains for too long, we may well be on the verge of another great brain-drain. The effect on Baxter was long-lasting, and apparently permanent. Let’s hope it won’t be recreated yet again, or indeed any time soon.
This strange world is based on finding and acquiring books as objects regardless of their value as literature or antiquity (although neither of these qualities are necessarily excluded); but including comics, pornography, science fiction, whatever. Much of the fun and obsession centres on getting those publications (whether specific editions, or by just one special author) for as little money as possible, but which can (if you know what you are doing) be worth tens, hundreds, even thousands of times more than what they cost the collector. Obviously a lot of specialised knowledge is required, and even more cunning to ferret out, discover, and/or hoodwink the unwary in parting with their possession(s) for much less than what might be obtained in specialist book markets. Hardly an atmosphere which would encourage long and lasting friendships…
Baxter explains how he got caught in this obsession (starting with his interest in the works of Graham Greene), and spells out the compulsion which is generated to ever expand one’s collection (or indeed collections — why limit oneself?). Even when involved in other necessary activities (such as working, living, etc.) one needs to be forever on the alert for what may or may not be happening in this area. A true book “runner” (as they are called) needs to have his or her antennae working permanently to pick up even the slightest suggestion of a possible find, no matter when or where one might be. Along the way, of course, the author often finds himself in the company of well-known and interesting people, and he name drops quite a lot… Still, overall, he maintains a rather cheerful if not cheeky rapport with most of the people he meets. Even so, he can’t help but offer a snide remark (or several!) on just about everyone and everywhere he had been in his peregrinations (Australia, England, America, France). There are also three Appendices (one on Lists; one on “What you would save if your house were on fire”; and one on choice eBay listings) all from the point of view of typical Book Collectors, which ordinary readers might find both provocative and amusing. It’s all rather wide-ranging, but in the hands of Baxter, all in all, I enjoyed the ride: it is a fun read!
Australians might find the first part of this two-part “biography” of particular interest: it deals with Baxter’s early life in Australia (where his obsession began) and his growing disdain for its quality of life (or lack of it!) which would result in his joining in with the cultural brain drain of the early seventies. Baxter is scathing (but accurate, in my opinion) in his assessments. For example, of Australia in the fifties, he writes: Catholicism is a creed of hot countries. In the world’s remoter corners, where the blood of belief flows sluggishly, it has a tendency to fester. Rome would hardly have recognised Australian Catholicism. Presided over by a fiercely Fenian cardinal named Gilroy, its roots ran directly to Dublin, which sent us quantities of ‘priests with a past’, unchristian Christian Brothers given to paedophilia and flagellation, and Sisters of Mercy neither sisterly nor merciful.
He is just as scathing later: … Australia felt to me like the country Tennyson wrote about in ‘The Lotus Eaters’ — ‘a land / In which it seemed always afternoon’. Enthusiasms evaporated in the hot dry air. It was as if, because of some genetic abnormality, Australians lacked the ability to communicate on any but the most concrete level. One could discuss facts incessantly, but passions induced an embarrassment that rendered them literally speechless. It would be decades before this intellectual lockjaw passed.
I would like to think that, for a while, it appeared that the Australian cultural desert eventually began to bloom in wonderful and unexpected ways; yet the above passages resonated ominously with me. Our current (2014) right-wing, neo-conservative government seems intent on dragging Australia back into the past as represented by those passages quoted above, cutting back on the very cultural, humanistic and scientific developments that took such a long time to establish and nourish… If this government remains for too long, we may well be on the verge of another great brain-drain. The effect on Baxter was long-lasting, and apparently permanent. Let’s hope it won’t be recreated yet again, or indeed any time soon.
March 19, 2025
There is a quote from the Sunday Telegraph on the cover of my edition of this book. It calls A Pound of Paper "enjoyable, diverting". And I would certainly agree with that assessment. The book is full of anecdotes, some of them quite amusing, and the writing is pleasant enough. But this is rather faint praise when you think about it.
The problem of the book is that it is rambling and imbued with vagueness. It presents the reader with a succession of very loosely related episodes, more or less in chronological order (though the timeline is not too clear), most of them approximately having to do with collecting books. There is also a lot of name-dropping in those pages, though very often of the names of people you've never heard of.
This means that, as you turn the last page, while you did enjoy its predecessors, and were indeed diverted by them, you can't help wondering what you just read and why you bothered reading it; why the author bothered writing it, for that matter.
So, yes, "enjoyable" and "diverting", but probably not "an excellent book" as the Sunday Telegraph quote carries on to say.
The problem of the book is that it is rambling and imbued with vagueness. It presents the reader with a succession of very loosely related episodes, more or less in chronological order (though the timeline is not too clear), most of them approximately having to do with collecting books. There is also a lot of name-dropping in those pages, though very often of the names of people you've never heard of.
This means that, as you turn the last page, while you did enjoy its predecessors, and were indeed diverted by them, you can't help wondering what you just read and why you bothered reading it; why the author bothered writing it, for that matter.
So, yes, "enjoyable" and "diverting", but probably not "an excellent book" as the Sunday Telegraph quote carries on to say.
March 7, 2020
The first half that actually focuses on books is entertaining, the second half is just biography and name dropping, and the final 50 pages or so is pure filler.
February 6, 2011
‘Books are forever, but book people change and none more so than the London runners and dealers who became my friends.’
John Baxter grew up in rural Australia during the 1950s, and found that reading books was not highly regarded. Owning and collecting books was by no means a common pursuit then either, but this didn’t stop John from developing a passion for books, and their ownership, which has grown through obsession into a major collection.
I don’t completely share the obsession, but I love reading books about books. I enjoy finding out what books other bibliophiles value, and why. The connections between books, their authors and readers are interesting to read about as well.
In John Baxter’s case, while his book hunting has taken him around the world, his first significant find was in London, in 1978, when he saw a copy of a rare children’s book by Graham Greene (‘The Little Horse Bus’) with an asking price of 5pence. On the same day John met Martin Stone, one of the legends of the book-selling world, who became his mentor and friend. What makes this book memorable is the inside look into the various worlds of book collecting: the sometimes fascinating people involved in the trade (such as Martin Stone); distinguishing some of the many variables that make books collectible or not; and (of course) his contact with literary figures such as Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis and Ray Bradbury.
Along the way, John Baxter became a biographer (he has written biographies of George Lucas, Woody Allen, and Stanley Kubrick) and has written a number of other books about films and those who make them. It’s interesting to read about how the boy from rural Australia ended up living in a Paris penthouse with a library worth millions. But the real fun, for me, was in the appendices: from the various lists that some collectors would like to fill (such as all of the winners of particular prizes); to which published book an individual would choose to grab from their shelves if their house was on fire; and finishing with some book collecting gems culled from eBay. My current favourite from the final category is:
‘ALEX HALEY SINGED 1st ED. – ‘ROOTS’ – HB w/DJ’
‘Rarity can be created, but not value. That has to be achieved. It gathers on a book like the patina of a bronze, over decades of diligence and care.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
John Baxter grew up in rural Australia during the 1950s, and found that reading books was not highly regarded. Owning and collecting books was by no means a common pursuit then either, but this didn’t stop John from developing a passion for books, and their ownership, which has grown through obsession into a major collection.
I don’t completely share the obsession, but I love reading books about books. I enjoy finding out what books other bibliophiles value, and why. The connections between books, their authors and readers are interesting to read about as well.
In John Baxter’s case, while his book hunting has taken him around the world, his first significant find was in London, in 1978, when he saw a copy of a rare children’s book by Graham Greene (‘The Little Horse Bus’) with an asking price of 5pence. On the same day John met Martin Stone, one of the legends of the book-selling world, who became his mentor and friend. What makes this book memorable is the inside look into the various worlds of book collecting: the sometimes fascinating people involved in the trade (such as Martin Stone); distinguishing some of the many variables that make books collectible or not; and (of course) his contact with literary figures such as Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis and Ray Bradbury.
Along the way, John Baxter became a biographer (he has written biographies of George Lucas, Woody Allen, and Stanley Kubrick) and has written a number of other books about films and those who make them. It’s interesting to read about how the boy from rural Australia ended up living in a Paris penthouse with a library worth millions. But the real fun, for me, was in the appendices: from the various lists that some collectors would like to fill (such as all of the winners of particular prizes); to which published book an individual would choose to grab from their shelves if their house was on fire; and finishing with some book collecting gems culled from eBay. My current favourite from the final category is:
‘ALEX HALEY SINGED 1st ED. – ‘ROOTS’ – HB w/DJ’
‘Rarity can be created, but not value. That has to be achieved. It gathers on a book like the patina of a bronze, over decades of diligence and care.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
December 21, 2014
Let me start off by saying 2 things - 1) I *love* books about books, and 2) I did finish the book.
However... I was disappointed. I was really looking forward to reading about the author's travels as a collector - books he coveted and how he got them, the personalities he met along the way. This was much more autobiographical than I expected, and quite honestly, I could have cared less about his childhood in Australia, his work with the railroad, etc.
Gave it 3 stars because I did finish the damn thing, but I would not recommend.
However... I was disappointed. I was really looking forward to reading about the author's travels as a collector - books he coveted and how he got them, the personalities he met along the way. This was much more autobiographical than I expected, and quite honestly, I could have cared less about his childhood in Australia, his work with the railroad, etc.
Gave it 3 stars because I did finish the damn thing, but I would not recommend.
November 22, 2015
John Baxter's A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict is a deceptive little thing. I went in expecting a book about books and about someone with an all-consuming passion for books. Which this is...more or less. Actually more less than more. This is a far cry from 84, Charing Cross Road or The Yellow-Lighted Book both books that wonderfully represent the book lover and collector and their relationship to the printed page.
Baxter takes us on a meandering tour of his life--long, boring bit on his childhood which leads up to his discovery of science fiction which launched his love for books and his fledgling attempts at book collecting. We follow him through a bit more book collecting then we get side-tracked by movies and the theatre and collecting screenplays and whatnot. Lots of fixation on Graham Greene and Kingsley Amis and his ways and means of getting hold of autographed copies of their works. Yeah, we can tell he loves books, but it seems far more important for him to name drop all the famous people he met and got autographs from and to to tell us how much he paid (or how little, as the case may be) for spectacular first editions of tasty little literary tidbits. Which might impress me more if he didn't come across as so darn full of himself. His writing is good, but not congenial. The words flow nicely from the pen (or the keyboard...), but they don't compel the reader to keep reading. I started and stopped and started again so many times that I wondered if I were ever going to come to the end. It starts well, lags terribly in the middle 200-50 pages and ends well. I did enjoy the lists of collectible books and the responses from his literary friends to the question "What would you save if your house were on fire..." Overall--just barely decent with ★★ given for pretty prose with bursts of interesting nostalgic book-collecting instead of compelling memoir about a book lover (which is what I hoped for).
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
Baxter takes us on a meandering tour of his life--long, boring bit on his childhood which leads up to his discovery of science fiction which launched his love for books and his fledgling attempts at book collecting. We follow him through a bit more book collecting then we get side-tracked by movies and the theatre and collecting screenplays and whatnot. Lots of fixation on Graham Greene and Kingsley Amis and his ways and means of getting hold of autographed copies of their works. Yeah, we can tell he loves books, but it seems far more important for him to name drop all the famous people he met and got autographs from and to to tell us how much he paid (or how little, as the case may be) for spectacular first editions of tasty little literary tidbits. Which might impress me more if he didn't come across as so darn full of himself. His writing is good, but not congenial. The words flow nicely from the pen (or the keyboard...), but they don't compel the reader to keep reading. I started and stopped and started again so many times that I wondered if I were ever going to come to the end. It starts well, lags terribly in the middle 200-50 pages and ends well. I did enjoy the lists of collectible books and the responses from his literary friends to the question "What would you save if your house were on fire..." Overall--just barely decent with ★★ given for pretty prose with bursts of interesting nostalgic book-collecting instead of compelling memoir about a book lover (which is what I hoped for).
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
October 11, 2009
Though chock-full of entertaining anecdotes, this book never successfully got past the somewhat pretentious and egotistical personality of its author. In fiction (or even more "objective" non-fiction) this might fly, but when you're reading a memoir of sorts, it's always equally important to like the writer as much as his subject. As for his subject, when Baxter stuck to talking about books and his collecting hobby, he was at his best. It was both entertaining and informative to hear about his cultivation of a Graham Greene collection, of his encounters with getting Kingsley Amis to sign his books, and of his attempts to buy books at reasonable prices in a hugely inflated London book market. This book also notably talks about the influence of the Internet on book buying and selling, and comes complete with an appendix of book sales on eBay that are worth perusing for entertainment value alone. But Baxter was all too willing to abandon these amusing stories in favor of expounding upon his mediocre career as a screen writer, professor, and even lover. This was not only irritating for lack of focus, but also because these digressions were little more than narcissistic asides. To the extent they informed his book collecting hobby, fine. He could have left them out of this book, however, and it would have been better for it.
December 17, 2014
Le eroicomiche avventure di uno schiavo del collezionismo e dei libri :) e di altri che frequentano i bassifondi della lettura
September 7, 2022
John Baxter traces his bibliophilic roots to his childhood in the unlikely surroundings of an end of the line town in New South Wales, where ‘nature and the book existed in a state of war’. A single purchase - the Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke - led to a lifelong urge to collect; first science fiction, then, following a move to England in the Sixties, moving on to a fascination with the works of Graham Greene. Baxter is excellent value on the mysterious urge to collect, and paints a vivid picture of the seedy, seamy world of ‘book runners’ in the Seventies and Eighties, featuring great characters like Martin Stone and ‘Driff Field’. A Pound of Paper is a picaresque journey through a fascinating, largely vanished, world.
March 28, 2020
In his autobiography, Baxter gives the reader a fun and detailed ride through the eccentric lifestyle (for it is far beyond the realm of hobby) of book collecting. We followed him through his young life in the barren literary landscape of rural Australia, where he caught the sci-fi fan bug, and saw how it lead him to pursuing a life in the literary and film world. I very much respect how the author allowed himself to get carried along by his passion for reading and books, and left the other details of life largely up to fate.
He lost a star due to how his sexism sometimes bled in along the margins, and for his laissez-faire attitude towards some admired authors taking very young lovers (aka having sex with underage individuals, also known as child molestation). This was only mentioned in passing, but I find such things hard to shake.
He lost a star due to how his sexism sometimes bled in along the margins, and for his laissez-faire attitude towards some admired authors taking very young lovers (aka having sex with underage individuals, also known as child molestation). This was only mentioned in passing, but I find such things hard to shake.
February 26, 2009
Seduced by the exotic sub-title 'Confessions of a Book Addict', I fully expected a book crammed with stories of book buying, book collecting and reading so it was disappointing to find all sorts of other less interesting reminiscences filling the pages. Rather like the curate's egg, I therefore found it 'good in parts' but pretty ordinary in others. The blurb on the dustwrapper is also somewhat misleading because that indicates that the subject matter is primarily book related - not so! The end result is that I was disappointed with the book, it just did not do it for me, even though, as I have said, some of the book-related incidents are well worth the read and the lists at the back are certainly enlightening. Sorry Mr Baxter.
July 19, 2024
DNF at 49 pages
I really wanted to like this book. Apart from my own interest in the subject matter I found the author’s style of storytelling and descriptive language to be interesting and engaging. However, the author’s casual misogyny, use of racist slurs, insensitive descriptions of people with disabilities, and other unsavory details pop up throughout the text like roaches. Additionally the author takes a cavalier attitude towards things like murder and child molestation, treating such actions as merely interesting tidbits surrounding the lives of the people he discusses. Based on other reviews I have read this does not improve further into the text and the author’s attitude and thinly veiled beliefs ultimately proved too much for me to wish to continue.
I really wanted to like this book. Apart from my own interest in the subject matter I found the author’s style of storytelling and descriptive language to be interesting and engaging. However, the author’s casual misogyny, use of racist slurs, insensitive descriptions of people with disabilities, and other unsavory details pop up throughout the text like roaches. Additionally the author takes a cavalier attitude towards things like murder and child molestation, treating such actions as merely interesting tidbits surrounding the lives of the people he discusses. Based on other reviews I have read this does not improve further into the text and the author’s attitude and thinly veiled beliefs ultimately proved too much for me to wish to continue.
May 2, 2012
This was a far more interesting read than I thought it was going to be. A meandering look at the seamy underbelly of the book collecting world. It was a lark to read some of the descriptions of the ways in which he would get inscriptions for his collection. I also really enjoyed the descriptions of the characters he came in contact with. Maybe I enjoyed this more than some of the reviewers because of my part time job in a used bookstore. It gave me a little bit of empathy.
Good all around for me.
Good all around for me.
July 21, 2007
If you like this, I also recommend Nicholas Basbanes's AMONG THE GENTLY MAD, both of which I picked up at the Huntington Library in Pasadena.
July 28, 2016
Book # 72 Read in 2016
A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict by John Baxter
Baxter details how he became a book collector, one spanning years and countries. Baxter mentions many works of literature, many bookstores and many stories about getting the books he wanted. A book lover will love reading about another book lover.
A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict by John Baxter
Baxter details how he became a book collector, one spanning years and countries. Baxter mentions many works of literature, many bookstores and many stories about getting the books he wanted. A book lover will love reading about another book lover.
February 8, 2021
Fun stories, some great name-dropping. If only this book had an index, even that would make an interesting read! Also, some wonderful, biblio-brick-a-brack appendices also make for interesting reading.
April 23, 2021
Baxter’s accounts of book collecting are either what I’ve done collecting books, or makes me want to do it. It’s nice to know I’m not alone in my dragon-like hoarding. The reason it’s not a 5 star, is because it tended to drone on in parts.
December 30, 2008
Had to plow through this. The title intrigued but the minutiae slowed me down.
January 2, 2018
I enjoyed his style of storytelling, but a lot of the book collecting references were lost on me. It also spans several years and three or more continents. It is a long and fascinating read.
September 9, 2019
Baxter admits he is a bibliophile. As far as confessions go, this is an interesting one in that it leads him to meet all manner of people and live in Australia, England, America, and now France. According to his website, he and his family live in Paris where they lead literary tours.
Baxter grew up in Australia and started work for the railroad early in life. In order to help pass the time in some of the remote places he stayed, he took up reading. First it was Science Fiction and Fantasy. He moved into literary fiction as he matured. He became an amateur book collector with the works of Graham Greene. He began to seek first editions, then sought out editions inscribed by Greene.
Part of what makes this such an interesting read is that Baxter discovered his "addiction" for books in the 1960's. Wherever he lived and regardless of his occupation, he hunted for the treasure of his desired books in shops, through back alley dealers, and in flea markets. The hunt was always serendipitous because he never knew what he would find or who he would meet. T'was a grand adventure.
As Baxter notes toward the end of his book, the ubiquitous presence of the Internet allows one to just get on the computer and order what one wants. Well, where is the fun in that? The rise of the Internet in one of the factors that helped with the demise of the independent book store, used and new.
Baxter introduces the reader to all manner of collectible genres, authors, and book dealers. He knows how to tell a good story. As he tells of his book adventures, he also reveals biographical information that readers will find interesting. He also explains how the book collecting hobby and business has changed over the years.
I think one of the most interesting parts of the book is when he explains how the cultures of Australia, England, America, and France are different from one another. The different countries have diferent attitudes about books, literature, and how commerce is conducted.
Baxter grew up in Australia and started work for the railroad early in life. In order to help pass the time in some of the remote places he stayed, he took up reading. First it was Science Fiction and Fantasy. He moved into literary fiction as he matured. He became an amateur book collector with the works of Graham Greene. He began to seek first editions, then sought out editions inscribed by Greene.
Part of what makes this such an interesting read is that Baxter discovered his "addiction" for books in the 1960's. Wherever he lived and regardless of his occupation, he hunted for the treasure of his desired books in shops, through back alley dealers, and in flea markets. The hunt was always serendipitous because he never knew what he would find or who he would meet. T'was a grand adventure.
As Baxter notes toward the end of his book, the ubiquitous presence of the Internet allows one to just get on the computer and order what one wants. Well, where is the fun in that? The rise of the Internet in one of the factors that helped with the demise of the independent book store, used and new.
Baxter introduces the reader to all manner of collectible genres, authors, and book dealers. He knows how to tell a good story. As he tells of his book adventures, he also reveals biographical information that readers will find interesting. He also explains how the book collecting hobby and business has changed over the years.
I think one of the most interesting parts of the book is when he explains how the cultures of Australia, England, America, and France are different from one another. The different countries have diferent attitudes about books, literature, and how commerce is conducted.
October 16, 2025
Well that was disappointing!
I love books and I love books about books, so I was excited to read this book, subtitled 'confessions of a book addict'. Unfortunately, Baxter's book addiction is that of buying valuable books as cheaply as possibly, especially if he can sell them on for a profit. He shares anecdotes where he buys up the contents of a deceased person's library for a fraction of its true value because the bereaved relatives trust him to give them a fair deal, and I found it really nauseating the way he brags about ripping off grieving people.
I didn't find the name-dropping as objectionable as some people do - if someone works in the field of literature, they are likely to meet a number of well-known authors. Baxter is a product of his time, so I tried to overlook his casual racism, his enthusiasm for sexist behaviour and the frequency with which he and his fellow college lecturers married their students. And while I found it distasteful, I suppose he had some grounds for including lengthy descriptions of erotic literature in a book about books. But it's hard to see what justification there is for a lengthy account of his involvement with a pornographic film project, where the planning meeting ended in an orgy.
This would have been a one star rating, if it were not for his description of how he first got the book collecting bug - if only the rest of the book had followed in a similar vein. I also enjoyed sections describing bookshops in other parts of the world. The second appendix, where he asks various authors and publishers which one book they would save if their house were burning down was probably the most interesting part of the book. But overall, the title pretty much sums up the book: it's merely "A Pound of Paper" which could have been put to far better use.
I love books and I love books about books, so I was excited to read this book, subtitled 'confessions of a book addict'. Unfortunately, Baxter's book addiction is that of buying valuable books as cheaply as possibly, especially if he can sell them on for a profit. He shares anecdotes where he buys up the contents of a deceased person's library for a fraction of its true value because the bereaved relatives trust him to give them a fair deal, and I found it really nauseating the way he brags about ripping off grieving people.
I didn't find the name-dropping as objectionable as some people do - if someone works in the field of literature, they are likely to meet a number of well-known authors. Baxter is a product of his time, so I tried to overlook his casual racism, his enthusiasm for sexist behaviour and the frequency with which he and his fellow college lecturers married their students. And while I found it distasteful, I suppose he had some grounds for including lengthy descriptions of erotic literature in a book about books. But it's hard to see what justification there is for a lengthy account of his involvement with a pornographic film project, where the planning meeting ended in an orgy.
This would have been a one star rating, if it were not for his description of how he first got the book collecting bug - if only the rest of the book had followed in a similar vein. I also enjoyed sections describing bookshops in other parts of the world. The second appendix, where he asks various authors and publishers which one book they would save if their house were burning down was probably the most interesting part of the book. But overall, the title pretty much sums up the book: it's merely "A Pound of Paper" which could have been put to far better use.
March 21, 2022
I found this book to be a real disappointment. The sub-title is “Confessions of a Book Addict” but the book is really an autobiography that uses the author’s addiction to book collecting as a framework. The book begins well enough as the author tells of his upbringing and youth in Australia, where he discovered and fell in love with science fiction. As a young adult working in Sydney, he joined a science fiction group and met some truly unusual folks, as one might imagine in such a group. Moving to London, the author finds success as a writer and tells somewhat interesting stories about book collecting but, to me, this is where the book begins to fall down. Mr. Baxter meets some well known authors (e.g., Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis) but, after a while, the name dropping becomes overly self-indulgent and, frankly, obnoxious. After that, the author lives back in Australia, then Los Angeles and, finally, Paris. Book collecting seems to become secondary and maybe that’s a good thing but what replaces it in the narrative is, in my opinion, not that interesting. One thing I found disappointing is that, after the author’s science fiction phase, he does not say much about READING books. He seems simply to regard books as objects rather than something to get lost in, something that can open new worlds for the reader. I struggled to finish this book but I somehow got through it.
October 5, 2023
Like the author, I’ve been collecting books since my teenage years but that’s as far as the similarity goes! Me? I couldn’t confidently tell you if a book was a genuine first edition. John Baxter could. He could also tell you what makes one edition more valuable than another, which dust cover is better and why not all best sellers are worth collecting. The man’s a walking encyclopaedia and he makes it sound so interesting! I didn’t know this, but a person employed to find books for collectors is called a runner and for some time, this is how John Baxter made a good living. After writing his first short story, to help out a friend, and getting paid for it, he impulsively left his first job as a railway clerk. He then went on to make a success as a writer, reviewer, broadcaster, collector of books and ephemera and all time guru of the literary world. He says in the book that “Rarity can be created, but not value. That has to be achieved. It gathers on a book like the patina on a bronze, over decades of diligence and care..” He says a lots of things really, and says them well. He’s got a lovely descriptive style which I liked. The middle section of the book isn’t as good as the bits either side in my opinion, however, the whole of this ‘confession of a book addict’ is the sum of all its parts! If you like books about books, if you’ve enjoyed books by Clive James and Anne Bogel, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this memoir.
June 4, 2020
What started as an exciting and illuminating portrait of obsessive book-collecting gradually peters out into a rather conceited autobiography. Too many characters and locations clutter this story, which loses its soul as a result.
Martin Stone is introduced as a delightfully eccentric character, yet we hear too little about him or his exploits. Perhaps the drifting, ascetic nature of such characters lends itself to this scattergun anecdote-fest that Baxter's story becomes. As an amusing, diverting read, this will give you a few hours of light-hearted entertainment, but as an insider's confessional lifting the veil on a fascinating subculture it leaves a lot to be desired.
Martin Stone is introduced as a delightfully eccentric character, yet we hear too little about him or his exploits. Perhaps the drifting, ascetic nature of such characters lends itself to this scattergun anecdote-fest that Baxter's story becomes. As an amusing, diverting read, this will give you a few hours of light-hearted entertainment, but as an insider's confessional lifting the veil on a fascinating subculture it leaves a lot to be desired.
September 8, 2017
Is book collecting mainly about when the book was printed and who scribbled in it? That makes it sound more like memorabilia to me and less about the story written on those pages. I guess I thought there was something more intriguing to rare books, but I am not sure what I thought that might be. I enjoyed Baxter's account of his book addiction, but I didn't recognize as many of the authors as I was hoping I would.
July 16, 2024
Great summer read. An autobiography of the author and his enjoyment creating collections of books. Best line of the book is when discussing the 1980s cultural promotion in Australia after the Mad Max success he stated a lot of people stole the money intended for good artists except for the money for writing as no one ever thought it would be profitable to write. ;)
November 29, 2017
A. Highly readable.
March 10, 2018
Lost interest quickly as this turned out to be more about the the, the reader, than the books. Could not finish the book after such pleasure in The Shelf and Howard's End is on the Landing.
August 12, 2021
Interesting with a lovely twist of colourful characters.. informative and entertaining
October 12, 2025
Ok book about book collecting however the author is a bit pompous in places
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