"Immersion in the life of the world, a willingness to be inhabited by and to speak for others, including those beyond the realm of the human, these are the practices not just of the bodhisattva but of the writer." --Jane Hirshfield

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

"Why don't you steal from a fucking corporate bookstore, you asshole?"

The coin of the realm is now, and has always been, the fiction that young white men read, and self-satisfied young white men, the kind who love to stick it to the man, are the majority of book shoplifters.

I have a hard time picturing independent booksellers as "the man," myself. But I am not a young white man.

1. Charles Bukowski
2. Jim Thompson
3. Philip K. Dick
4. William S. Burroughs
5. Any Graphic Novel

This is pretty much the authoritative top five, the New York Times best-seller list of stolen books.


At The Stranger.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's disturbing that so many of the books are stolen to be resold. I'd have more sympathy for the penniless thief who had a desperate desire to read

Although there is always the library.

Zen of Writing said...

So would I, and some library books are pretty dirty. I think it's scandalous to eat or pick your nose while reading a borrowed book.