4 ms·

The Book Thieves of London

55 points by lermontov 12y ago

wyclif 12y ago
500 error. I don't think this is a site that can handle large amounts of traffic.
- plug 12y ago
  Indeed. I got in there just before the stampede. A short, entertaining read about the dying art of book theft, and a summary of some of the 'characters' of the trade. Google cache here: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:thedabbler.co.uk/2015/03/the-book-theives-of-london/ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:thedabb...
  - danielweber 12y ago
    During the London riots, bookstores' inventory was left untouched. If there were any book thieves left they would have had easy pickings. First hit on Google: http://www.thewire.com/global/2011/08/its-pattern-london-rioters-are-leaving-bookstores-untouched/41142/ http://www.thewire.com/global/2011/08/its-pattern-london-rio...
    - tragomaskhalos 12y ago
      Stupid gaudy trainers and wide-screen TVs only. Tsch, kids today eh?
mswift42 12y ago
This is as good an opportunity as I'd be likely to get to heartily recommend "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_Thief http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_Thief One of the finest books I've had the pleasure to read.
- jwmoz 12y ago
  And by "read", I mean "steal".
- pavel_lishin 12y ago
  This book is surprisingly hard to find on Amazon. This one's title appears to be "By Markus Zusak The Book Thief": http://www.amazon.com/Markus-Zusak-Book-Thief-First/dp/B00N4EMS2C/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1425398139&sr=8-5&keywords=Markus+Zusak+The+Book+Thief http://www.amazon.com/Markus-Zusak-Book-Thief-First/dp/B00N4... This one has the same title, but the author appears to be "-Alfred A. Knopf-": http://www.amazon.com/Markus-Zusak-Book-Thief/dp/B0084V2R7Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1425398181&sr=8-2&keywords=Markus+Zusak+The+Book+Thief http://www.amazon.com/Markus-Zusak-Book-Thief/dp/B0084V2R7Q/... Only searching by ISBN was I able to find what I'm reasonably sure is the actual genuine book: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Thief-Markus-Zusak/dp/0375842209/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425398262&sr=8-1&keywords=9780375842207 http://www.amazon.com/Book-Thief-Markus-Zusak/dp/0375842209/... What's going on?
  - mswift42 12y ago
    Alfred A. Knopf is the name of the US. Publisher for said book.
Elvie 12y ago
I worked in the book trade between 2000 and 2004. I did catch someone's eye once who left the store before putting all the neat piles of hardback books he had stashed under a table in his briefcase. And I also marked Rough Trade and Lonely Planet guidebooks with invisible ink. After Robert Jordan was arrested I had to identify my handwriting to the police and be available for a court date, but never had my moment in the witness stand... there was no need
- danielweber 12y ago
  I was really confused as to what Robert Jordan got arrested for until I realized it should be Ronald Jordan. :)
  - Elvie 12y ago
    Apologies... all book related...
- mootothemax 12y ago
  If it's of any interest, you can read Ronald Jordan's Court of Appeals judgment here: http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2005/197.html http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/... For what it's worth, mention's made of books being marked. As an aside, I find it quite incredible that the police office brought in to calculate Jordan's earnings did so on the basis that Jordan was paying his thieves 60% of face value. Sixty percent! I'd be kinda surprised if it was as high as twenty!
  - gwern 12y ago
    Police have no incentive to accurately price out earnings, and may not know about the details; rather, to overstate them to impress the court & press. I see a lot of this in drug cases - the police will say a bust resulted in a street value of $50k where the person only spent, say, $500, because they're using rounded up figures of the highest street price, and nothing at all realistic. Sometimes it's funny: yesterday I was reading a NZ article where the lawyer was trying to explain to the judge that just because his client was caught importing something like 100 doses of MDMA off Silk Road (cost ~$200, IIRC), his client wasn't a dealer - it was simply that because European MDMA is so cheap and there's overhead in handling an order & shipping it into NZ with decent stealth, few SR sellers will bother with small orders under 100!
mootothemax 12y ago
While the site is still down, here's the Google cache of the page: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1-86FF_XgR4J:thedabbler.co.uk/2015/03/the-book-theives-of-london/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pl http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1-86FF_...
slm_HN 12y ago
Reminded me of this story from my old stomping ground, the bookstores of Ann Arbor: http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/davids_books_owner_charged_in.html http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/davids_books_own...
lutusp 12y ago
Quote: "It only took Roy a minute to discretely nudge the pile ..." A small, barely detectable but finite nudge? Or did the author mean to say "discreetly"?
javajosh 12y ago
A beautiful but fundamentally sad tale about the decline of the physical distribution of information and it's associated sub-cultures.

55 points by lermontov 12y ago

wyclif 12y ago

500 error. I don't think this is a site that can handle large amounts of traffic.

plug 12y ago
Indeed. I got in there just before the stampede. A short, entertaining read about the dying art of book theft, and a summary of some of the 'characters' of the trade. Google cache here: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:thedabbler.co.uk/2015/03/the-book-theives-of-london/ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:thedabb...
- danielweber 12y ago
  During the London riots, bookstores' inventory was left untouched. If there were any book thieves left they would have had easy pickings. First hit on Google: http://www.thewire.com/global/2011/08/its-pattern-london-rioters-are-leaving-bookstores-untouched/41142/ http://www.thewire.com/global/2011/08/its-pattern-london-rio...
  - tragomaskhalos 12y ago
    Stupid gaudy trainers and wide-screen TVs only. Tsch, kids today eh?

mswift42 12y ago

This is as good an opportunity as I'd be likely to get to heartily recommend "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_Thief http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_Thief One of the finest books I've had the pleasure to read.

jwmoz 12y ago
And by "read", I mean "steal".
pavel_lishin 12y ago
This book is surprisingly hard to find on Amazon. This one's title appears to be "By Markus Zusak The Book Thief": http://www.amazon.com/Markus-Zusak-Book-Thief-First/dp/B00N4EMS2C/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1425398139&sr=8-5&keywords=Markus+Zusak+The+Book+Thief http://www.amazon.com/Markus-Zusak-Book-Thief-First/dp/B00N4... This one has the same title, but the author appears to be "-Alfred A. Knopf-": http://www.amazon.com/Markus-Zusak-Book-Thief/dp/B0084V2R7Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1425398181&sr=8-2&keywords=Markus+Zusak+The+Book+Thief http://www.amazon.com/Markus-Zusak-Book-Thief/dp/B0084V2R7Q/... Only searching by ISBN was I able to find what I'm reasonably sure is the actual genuine book: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Thief-Markus-Zusak/dp/0375842209/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425398262&sr=8-1&keywords=9780375842207 http://www.amazon.com/Book-Thief-Markus-Zusak/dp/0375842209/... What's going on?
- mswift42 12y ago
  Alfred A. Knopf is the name of the US. Publisher for said book.

Elvie 12y ago

I worked in the book trade between 2000 and 2004. I did catch someone's eye once who left the store before putting all the neat piles of hardback books he had stashed under a table in his briefcase. And I also marked Rough Trade and Lonely Planet guidebooks with invisible ink. After Robert Jordan was arrested I had to identify my handwriting to the police and be available for a court date, but never had my moment in the witness stand... there was no need

danielweber 12y ago
I was really confused as to what Robert Jordan got arrested for until I realized it should be Ronald Jordan. :)
- Elvie 12y ago
  Apologies... all book related...
mootothemax 12y ago
If it's of any interest, you can read Ronald Jordan's Court of Appeals judgment here: http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2005/197.html http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/... For what it's worth, mention's made of books being marked. As an aside, I find it quite incredible that the police office brought in to calculate Jordan's earnings did so on the basis that Jordan was paying his thieves 60% of face value. Sixty percent! I'd be kinda surprised if it was as high as twenty!
- gwern 12y ago
  Police have no incentive to accurately price out earnings, and may not know about the details; rather, to overstate them to impress the court & press. I see a lot of this in drug cases - the police will say a bust resulted in a street value of $50k where the person only spent, say, $500, because they're using rounded up figures of the highest street price, and nothing at all realistic. Sometimes it's funny: yesterday I was reading a NZ article where the lawyer was trying to explain to the judge that just because his client was caught importing something like 100 doses of MDMA off Silk Road (cost ~$200, IIRC), his client wasn't a dealer - it was simply that because European MDMA is so cheap and there's overhead in handling an order & shipping it into NZ with decent stealth, few SR sellers will bother with small orders under 100!

mootothemax 12y ago

While the site is still down, here's the Google cache of the page: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1-86FF_XgR4J:thedabbler.co.uk/2015/03/the-book-theives-of-london/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pl http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1-86FF_...

slm_HN 12y ago

Reminded me of this story from my old stomping ground, the bookstores of Ann Arbor: http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/davids_books_owner_charged_in.html http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/davids_books_own...

lutusp 12y ago

Quote: "It only took Roy a minute to discretely nudge the pile ..." A small, barely detectable but finite nudge? Or did the author mean to say "discreetly"?

javajosh 12y ago

A beautiful but fundamentally sad tale about the decline of the physical distribution of information and it's associated sub-cultures.