The website of writer & artist Dan McNeil

A POUND OF PAPER: CONFESSIONS OF A BOOK ADDICT

John Baxter | 2002
Posted:
17th February, 2003
Back to previous page

Does professional book collecting turns you cold? Fear not. John Baxter’s amusing, intelligent and witty prose will have you laughing and learning.

Loosely autobiographical, this is Baxter from his early days in a godforsaken Australian outback town, where to read books was considered odd; to actually collect them was deeply weird.

Unsurprisingly, Baxter fled this philistine hellhole, living in London, Paris and LA, and all the while collecting rare and unusual books.

Priceless anecdotes abound – including, memorably, a seriously inebriated Kingsley Amis (a pint of cider, half sweet and half dry, followed by a double Teachers) dispensing invaluable advice and rare books (an uncorrected proof of You Only Live Twice) to Baxter in equal measure.

Collect this book.

©Dan McNeil 2003
[This review first appeared in Ink Magazine]