A really fun book to read. The author, a prominent art collector herself, interviews many famous collectors about their experiences in the art world. The book is broken up into various thematic chapters (meeting the artist, the one that got away, etc) and stories and anecdotes are told that are amusing and insightful. One of the strengths of the book is that the author had access to lots of collectors who probably wouldn't have spoken to a traditional journalist or author.

A couple of reasons for a 4 not a 5: Throughout the book, one theme is that you don't need a lot of money to collect art. Everyone in this book, however, has no problem writing million dollar checks. It would have been nice for her to have interviewed collectors of more modest means. Also, the book focuses nearly exclusively on contemporary art. Finally, the book has amusing cartoons that complement the text, but the book would have been much, much, much better if those cartoons were replaced with photographs of some of the artworks and spaces that were discussed in the book.

Having said that, I really enjoyed reading this book and getting a glimpse into the life of some of these mega-collectors. . .