
The Book Thieves of London - lermontov
http://thedabbler.co.uk/2015/03/the-book-theives-of-london/
======
Elvie
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

~~~
mootothemax
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/...](http://www.bailii.org/cgi-
bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2005/197.html)

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
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
Well that's the ironic thing - by overstating how much he was paying, the
police officer showed that he earned _less_ because his costs were so high.

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mootothemax
While the site is still down, here's the Google cache of the page:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1-86FF_...](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)

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mswift42
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.

~~~
pavel_lishin
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/B00N4...](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)

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/...](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)

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/...](http://www.amazon.com/Book-Thief-Markus-
Zusak/dp/0375842209/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425398262&sr=8-1&keywords=9780375842207)

What's going on?

~~~
mswift42
Alfred A. Knopf is the name of the US. Publisher for said book.

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lutusp
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"?

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slm_HN
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_own...](http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/davids_books_owner_charged_in.html)

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

~~~
plug
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:thedabb...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:thedabbler.co.uk/2015/03/the-
book-theives-of-london/)

~~~
danielweber
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-rio...](http://www.thewire.com/global/2011/08/its-pattern-london-
rioters-are-leaving-bookstores-untouched/41142/)

~~~
tragomaskhalos
Stupid gaudy trainers and wide-screen TVs only. Tsch, kids today eh?

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

