Bartlett also covers the efforts of Ken Sanders, a bookseller and part-time investigator of book theft, as he attempted to track down Gilkey and bring him to justice.

She eventually wrote an article on the subject for San Francisco Magazine, and later decided to expand that story into a book-length narrative, which became The Man Who Loved Books Too Much.

[1][3] The disconnect between this fantasy and the reality of Gilkey's actual character, Bartlett argues, shows in the fact that he only ever read one of his acquisitions (Nabokov's Lolita, which he declared "disgusting").

[4][5] Alongside her narrative of Gilkey's criminal deeds, Bartlett also tells the story of Ken Sanders, a dealer of rare books and one-time head of security for the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America.

Bartlett spends considerable time wondering why Gilkey would risk his freedom over books even as she recounts the fact that as a child he stole from a store indiscriminately.

"[1][7] Kirkus Reviews, similarly, found Bartlett amply capable of detailing the psychological workings of Gilkey and his ilk but failing to uphold journalistic standards of objectivity.