12.21.2009

Stealing books for fun and pleasure

Margo Rabb wrote a great essay on a recent rash of bookstore shoplifters, trying to have their unemployment and reading too. The most frequently stolen book? The Bible. In the shoplifters' defense, the only people Jesus straight up promised entrance to Paradise were thieves so...logical connection to stealing his Word?

This I liked:
Fiction is the most commonly poached genre at St. Mark’s Bookshop in the East Village of Manhattan; the titles that continually disappear are moved to the X-Case, safely ensconced behind the counter. This library of temptation includes books by Martin Amis, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Raymond Carver, Don DeLillo and Jack Kerouac, among others. Sometimes the staff isn’t sure whether an author is still popular to swipe until they return their books to the main floor. “Amis went out and came right back,” Michael Russo, the manager, told me.
Maybe they should put the Bible back in the X-Case.

No comments:

Post a Comment