tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post7550191242204556296..comments2024-01-06T10:36:04.084-05:00Comments on A Commonplace Blog: The books I’ve stolenD. G. Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-62737846091639355912012-12-17T13:59:13.857-05:002012-12-17T13:59:13.857-05:00How does someone reconcile stealing books from a s...How does someone reconcile stealing books from a synagogue?<br /><br />There seem to be different categories of book theft: (1) from a store; (2) from a friend; (3) from a family member: (4) from a public library; (5) from a school library; (6) from a parochial school library; (7) from a synagogue, mosque, or church; (8) from a government agency; (9) from God knows where else.<br /><br />I wonder if there is a hierarchy among those crimes. Which is most serious? Which is most forgivable?<br /><br />Where are you most likely to steal your next book? R.T.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13220814349193561823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-7451312501877560782012-12-16T10:30:58.156-05:002012-12-16T10:30:58.156-05:00I wonder if Bellow's views on book theft were ...I wonder if Bellow's views on book theft were similar to Augie's.Jonathannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-41162623481453284562012-12-15T23:26:30.347-05:002012-12-15T23:26:30.347-05:00I'm guilty of this as well. Although, I watch...I'm guilty of this as well. Although, I watch over my own collection like an Alkatraz warden. The colors on the spines form a mosaic that becomes utterly incomplete if one is out of place. I've learned that there is no such thing as "loaning" a book to someone. You might as well loan it to a large bonfire. I gave my sister a brand new copy of Pahhniuk's new book, "Invisible Monsters," and it is probably under the short leg of a wobbly table somewhere. I would take to stealing my friends books, if they actually possessed books. And it seems the bulk of adults I come in contact with, haven't graduated past the reading stage of young adult, and I wouldn't want to deprive their guests of drink coasters.Zarg Hardwaggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03389850033517687311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-87440145049443071042012-12-15T10:23:28.129-05:002012-12-15T10:23:28.129-05:00i stole a copy of Ivanhoe from an Irish pub in Mun...i stole a copy of Ivanhoe from an Irish pub in Munich. They buy the books and decor wholesale and the books were glued together so you can't read them. This enraged me so much i ripped two apart and stole one. There are glue marks on the cover.<br /><br />i also stole a book from a 2nd-hand bookshop in Durham back in 1999 when i recognised a friend's handwriting on the inside. He worked at Durham Uni till he was fired and the university forbade him to ever set foot on the premises again, and sold all the books in his office to a 2nd-hand bookshop. It was Thomas Fullers' Worthies of England. This was about 7 years after he'd been fired. i returned it to him. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-85036195473037782682012-12-14T21:56:49.313-05:002012-12-14T21:56:49.313-05:00Well, OK, and volume of Frege. I'd have given ...Well, OK, and volume of Frege. I'd have given it back, but the owner moved out of town.Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14819154529261482038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-29255370859733201982012-12-14T18:17:28.484-05:002012-12-14T18:17:28.484-05:00For about four months in 1971 I regarded the UC Ri...For about four months in 1971 I regarded the UC Riverside campus bookstore as my happy hunting ground. When I tried to take my act on the road at the ASUC store at Cal that October I was nearly apprehended, jettisoning the Secker & Warburg paperback of "Tales of Jacob" I'd intended to make off with in the nick of time . Since I was already in exceptionally bad odor with the University of California at that time, and engaged in complex negotiations to rehabilitate myself with that institution, I sensibly vowed to mend my ways, and by the time I was re-admitted (to Santa Cruz) a year later I had actually developed the rudiments of a moral sense--better late than never--and the local bookmongers had the benefit of my honest custom ever after.<br /><br />My brief criminal career has served to deprive my indignation of a certain piquancy whenever I've been stolen from in the decades since.Rand Careagahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04993454654652802173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-9843434057530506792012-12-14T15:53:36.177-05:002012-12-14T15:53:36.177-05:00Alvin Kernan's memoir In Plato's Cave has ...Alvin Kernan's memoir <i>In Plato's Cave</i> has an entertaining story of having to pacify the Yale Coop manager after a professor had been caught bolting with a bag full of books. The Washington City Paper long ago ran a list of the most stolen books--the Bible (Gideon's I suppose) led the way, followed by prep books for the Armed Services entrance exams.<br /><br />As best I recall, the one book I can definitely say I shouldn't have is <i>The C Programming Language</i> (pre-ANSI). My guilt at never having returned it to the former co-worker is modified or muddled by the sticker on the cover, identifying it as the property of a third person I never met.<br /><br />Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14819154529261482038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-58668095735245358292012-12-14T14:57:58.787-05:002012-12-14T14:57:58.787-05:00JLW—Rest easy. Taking home a prayerbook—either a s...JLW—Rest easy. Taking home a prayerbook—either a <i>siddur</i> or a <i>mahzor</i>—is something of a Jewish tradition. Some Jewish travelers even keep track of their stops along the way by this method.D. G. Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-63683114846816961582012-12-14T14:32:31.701-05:002012-12-14T14:32:31.701-05:00You've assuaged my guilt -- though I somehow d...You've assuaged my guilt -- though I somehow doubt that such the purpose of any kind of Biblioklepts Anonymous. I have a handful of books my brother was assigned in classes that I've likewise "liberated" from closets and bedrooms (Primo Levi, Martin Gilbert's "Holocaust"), and -- most shameful of all -- a New Union Prayer Book for Days of Awe ("Makhzor" is far more elegant, no?) that I once borrowed from a synagogue while helping to design a youth service of some sort.<br /><br />My favorite such books aren't even my fault. Several years ago, my grandmother gave me a box of Judaica books that had been my grandfather's. Almost all of them bore a sticker on the inside cover announcing that they were not to be removed from the synagogue library.J.L. Wallhttp://ordinary-gentlemen.comnoreply@blogger.com