Book Called "Mongo"

I am not sure if anyone has read a book by the name of "Mongo." It is about
people in New York city who collect items (called mongo) from the curbside
trash. There is a great chapter on a guy who finds books thrown in the
trash, and has found some that are worth thousands. It is tragic in some
sense because relatives throw away valuable books because they have no
knowledge of book collecting. I had checked my local library for the Mongo
book, and there was a twenty-four person waiting list. I forgot about it.
Then a couple of weeks ago I was driving through this small town, and
noticed the local library, and decided to drop in. They had a couple of
shelves of used books for sale, and what book was on the shelf, but "Mongo."
I got if for twenty-five cents. It was a "readers copy" that they send to
reviewers. I guess I found my copy of Mongo because of mongo. It is an
interesting read.

Tom

"mary" wrote in message
...

I am not sure if anyone has read a book by the name of "Mongo." It is about
people in New York city who collect items (called mongo) from the curbside
trash. There is a great chapter on a guy who finds books thrown in the
trash, and has found some that are worth thousands. It is tragic in some
sense because relatives throw away valuable books because they have no
knowledge of book collecting. I had checked my local library for the Mongo
book, and there was a twenty-four person waiting list. I forgot about it.
Then a couple of weeks ago I was driving through this small town, and
noticed the local library, and decided to drop in. They had a couple of
shelves of used books for sale, and what book was on the shelf, but
"Mongo."
I got if for twenty-five cents. It was a "readers copy" that they send to
reviewers. I guess I found my copy of Mongo because of mongo. It is an
interesting read.



I thought it was a decent read. The book hunter's chapter described his
interesting methodology. He follows a carefully devised route through NYC
during the wee hours (before the garbage is picked up). He is very
selective, takes only what he can carry (although he did stash some
Sotheby's catalogs in one of those free newspaper boxes for later
retrieval), and disposes of everything he has found that day (first stop for
selling was The Strand). He had amazing good luck going through the garbage
finding firsts of early Ian Fleming, a first of ULYSSES, and the entire
archive of a Broadway producer with thousands of dollars worth of
autographs, among other things.


William M. Klimon
http://www.catholicbookcollector.com