Bookworms are an interesting sort. Some compulsively hoard literary nuggets until their shelves sag and creak, yet never bother to actually read their collection. Others can barely tear themselves away from the freshly-vacuumed bookstore corner in which they devour the newest Malcolm Gladwell for fear that the trip home will forever interrupt their cozy date. There are bookworms with Kindles, and bookworms juggling the four paperbacks they’re reading at once. There are bookworms who get turned on by first editions, and bookworms keen on newer, abstract renditions. There are bookworms who follow the Tao of Oprah, and others who only listen to Deepak Chopra.
But perhaps the most intriguing bookworm of all is the bibliokleptomaniac, or what we like to call the kleptobrainiac. These people are book thieves, the nerdiest outlaws this side of Hogwarts. Fascinated? Appalled? Exposed? Find out what the most shoplifted books of modern times are after the jump.
In Margo Rabb’s recent New York Times essay, we learn that only 40 percent of books that are read are paid for, and only 28 percent are purchased new. What about the rest? They’re shared, lent, given away or stealthily taken by a customer with a case of the happy hands.
Depending on who you ask, the number one shoplifted book of modern times is either The Bible or The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. After these two, (and like these two) the top 10 list is male-penned. In fact, according to store owners surveyed by Rabb, the most-nicked books share two things: fiction as a genre and a male author.
1. The Bible
In tough times, both religion and shoplifting spike in popularity.
2. The Virgin Suicides
A modern goth novel about suicide pacts. Another sign of the times? We hope not.
3. The works of Martin Amis
Dubbed “The New Unpleasantness” by the New York Times, English novelist Amis rails again the excesses of modern capitalism. A comfort read?
4. The works of Charles Bukowski
A “laureate of American lowlife” and prolific writer, Bukowski also knew how to stick it to the man.
5. The works of William S. Burroughs
A Harvard grad, heroin dealer, and seedy bar frequenter, Burroughs was still getting an allowance from his parents when he was in his forties.
6. The works of Raymond Carver
Oh, just another alcoholic genius with a knack for short stories. Sensing a trend here?
7. The works of Don DeLillo
Post-modern novelist who quit his fancy job at Ogilvy because he “just didn’t want to work anymore.”
8. The works of Jack Kerouac
“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.” – Jack Kerouac …Like paying for books, right?
9. Steal This Book
Title says it all.
10. Travel guidebooks
The thieves seem to be directionally-challenged nomads.
Brooklyn store manager Zack Zook seems to think the reason for the apparent sexism exhibited by book thieves is just part of the bro-code. “It’s mostly younger men stealing the books,” he told Rabb, “They think it’s an existential rite of passage to steal their homeboy.”
Book theft is seen as the biggest form of sacrilege to some devout word-lovers (after burning/throwing them away, of course). Others, like the author from Boulder who got caught swiping his own book, feel entitled to the works. While we’ll never know how Kerouac would feel about someone shoving his book down their pants, we would like to know how you feel. Have you ever nabbed yourself a book? If not, which one tempts you?
Comments (17)
[...] Virgin Suicides is the most shoplifted book after the [...]
I think the books that tempt me the most are the $1 books outside The Strand. I know I can find some gems, and the fact that I’m sure no one is watching makes it all the more fun.
I’m a librarian and I get mad when people steal our books, but I can see why they do it. They pay a lot in tuition and fees at our college, so ….
I don’t remember ever stealing a book but Bukowski, upon hearing someone nabbed one of his books from a library, would get livid. His argument was that someone will never be exposed to his work because of the act. I think too as time goes by since the original publication some feel the money has been made. If the author is dead it is simple to rationalize the cash will never reach the right person.
I don’t think that I ever stole a book but I[‘m glad to see the Dom Delllillo is on the istl
I don’t think that I ever stole a book but I’m glad to see the Dom Delllillo is on the listl
At a number of bookstores you’ll see a note in the fiction section among the B’s and K’s noting “WORKS BY KEROUAC AND BUKOWSKI ARE BEHIND THE COUNTER. PLEASE ASK FOR ASSISTANCE.”
For years, Myopic Books in Chicago has had a “Dick” section, at the counter. I think it was named for Philip K Dick (and the people who stole his books, I assume), the section contains many of the authors above. Surprised Dick and Henry Miller didn’t make the list. Myopic is an amazing store. Their website: http://www.myopicbookstore.com
well i nab one; stole Fitzgerald tender is the night in my local bookstore.
You forgot to say “The Game” by Neil Strauss, which is the number two most shop-lifted book at Barnes N Noble next to The Bible, hence it is kept behind the front desk in glass. Any books behind the front desk in glass are popularly stolen.
Over 25 years ago, while in art school in NYC, I worked at an art museum bookstore and aided and abetted in “discounting” art books for art student friends—which seemed, at the time, less like theft and more like a public service. I never condoned stealing fiction or text-based non-fiction books, which I found so reasonably priced as to make the act pointless.
All travel guidebook authors are male? And travel guidebooks are considered “fiction”? Please–someone tell me that I misread this paragraph.
OMG!! CONFESSIONAL!! Lets just say, art museum bookstore ditto, Dali were among my favorite titles… I felt entitled because they wouldn’t give me a raise, though now, I realize I could have just done affirmations and become a wealthy woman through positive thinking.
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Extraordinary this publish is totaly unrelated to what I used to be searching google for, but it was once listed on the first page. I suppose your doing something right if Google likes you enough to place you at the first web page of a non similar search.
I can understand travel books, The “Bible”, even “Steal This Book”, but many of the others I’ve either never heard of the writer or maybe the perpetrator of the theft didn’t even think it was worth paying a single $1 for !!!
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