The Age Takes A Peek Into the life and times of John Baxter.
Baxter says, yes, he really does hate them – \”they\’re like mausoleums\”.
Baxter is at his most scathing when talking about libraries and librarians and the things they do to books. \”Collectors abominate lending libraries,\” he writes. \”They are graveyards of good books. Everything a librarian does to prepare a book for lending disqualifies it as collectable. Stamps are slammed on the title page, label pockets gummed to the rear pastedown, dust wrappers discarded, covers vulcanised in plastic – or, in those days, a toffee-brown buckram tough enough to withstand acid. Restoring a library book to collectable condition is like trying to return a Kentucky Fried Chicken to the state of health where it can lay an egg.\”
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