BOOK REPORT....

The Map Thief - Michael Blanding

Product Description(Amazon.com)
Maps have long exerted a special fascination on viewers—both as beautiful works of art and as practical tools to navigate the world. But to those who collect them, the map trade can be a cutthroat business, inhabited by quirky and sometimes disreputable characters in search of a finite number of extremely rare objects.

Once considered a respectable antiquarian map dealer, E. Forbes Smiley spent years doubling as a map thief —until he was finally arrested slipping maps out of books in the Yale University library. The Map Thief delves into the untold history of this fascinating high-stakes criminal and the inside story of the industry that consumed him. 
Paperback: 320 pages 
Publisher: Avery; Reprint edition (June 2, 2015) 
Language: English 
ISBN-10: 1592409407 
ISBN-13: 978-1592409402

MY THOUGHTS:  This book has lots of information about maps and the people who hunt them down, clean them up and sell them the collectors that want them.  Smiley started out as a reputable seller of old maps, but for reasons of his own, he started stealing maps.  He got caught and confessed to taking 100 or so maps.  Buts 100's or more are still missing from libraries.  As to if Smiley stole them or they have gotten misplaced is anyone's guess.  Really interesting book.  I give this book 5....

This book is for 2 of my reading challenges....
52 Books in 52 Weeks
Monthly Keyword Challenge