Collect and serve.

• Author: Glastris, George
• Position: Political Booknotes

THE BANANA SCULPTOR, THE PURPLE LADY, AND THE ALL-NIGHT SWIMMER: Hobbies, Collecting, and Other Passionate Pursuits by Susan Sheehan, Howard Means Simon & Schuster, $25.00

ONE OF THE LESS-NOTED effects of wealth is the ability it gives those who have it to pursue their chosen pastimes, no matter how obscure. One thinks of the eccentric gentleman-hobbyist Gussie Fink-Nottle, the character from P.G. Wodehouse's novels who spends every waking minute studying newts. But with prosperity spreading deeper and deeper into the middle and even working classes, such characters are no longer found only among the rich. As an auctioneer/appraiser in the very specialized field of early scientific and technical instruments, I know many such people they are my customers. And as a passionate collector myself of (among other things) Edison phonographs, I must also admit to being such a person.

In their new book, Susan Sheehan and Howard Means present 42 individual profiles of collectors and extreme hobbyists. Aside from a perfunctory introduction, the authors offer little in the way of analysis, but instead let each individual get to the heart of their lives in generous-sized monologues. They include a man restoring a steam locomotive in his backyard; a woman so fascinated with marbles that she has paved her driveway with them; a philatelist who describes finding a rare stamp from Alabama as being like "climbing Everest"; a 50-year-old patent lawyer whose devotion to rollerblading down the hills of San Francisco remains passionate despite the 27-stitch scar on his chin; and a man who is well on the way to his goal of eating at every McDonald's restaurant franchise in the country.

Those of us in the business often joke about people whose love of collecting has gone beyond normal. In Britain they are often called trainspotters or anoraks, and their encyclopedic knowledge, singular focus, and endless talking about their hobby often make them bores to be around. So it is, one suspects, with some of the individuals in this book. One couple collects toy Noah's Arks and has given over...