[1] A Gentle Madness also covered Stephen Blumberg, who had stolen over $10 million worth of books from libraries.

As a result, Basbanes had to spend profusely to maintain his research, using up savings and taking advances on book royalties.

However, due to corporate downsizing at the company in 1992, his editor was fired and his book's release was dropped despite being advertised.

Kirkus Reviews wrote that A Gentle Madness' numerous anecdotes manages to capture the spirit of acquiring books, although it "never really gets to the bottom of bibliomania."

[6] In 2010, Allison Hoover Bartlett writing for the Wall Street Journal named it one of the most influential works about book collecting published in the twentieth century.