counter on blogger

Pickle Me This

March 13, 2008

Degrees of theft

A piece at the Guardian Books blog about stealing books, which you might remember I covered properly in my post on bibliokleptomania at the Descant blog. I’ve stolen quite a few books in my time, not so ashamedly. I think I stole my copy of Happiness is a Warm Puppy from a dentists’ office, and Love Story from a desk in my geography class when I was twelve. During the last month I have actually stolen a copy of The Animals of that Country by Margaret Atwood, or rather I liberated it, for it was being ill-treated by its former carers, stuck on a shelf with Barbara Cartlands and its cover torn off. I promise you that they will never even know that it is missing. And that I only steal from those weird sad dump-off libraries that nobody loves. And that once I committed the utter opposite of book stealing, which was donating my books to a charity shop and then deciding that I couldn’t live without them and buying my books back again.

One thought on “Degrees of theft”

  1. Crissy Calhoun says:

    i stole a collection of short stories by roald dahl from my grade school library and i still feel pretty bad about that. but i REALLY liked it. and still have it and love it so… one day in purgatory should resolve me of that.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

New Novel, OUT NOW!

ATTENTION BOOK CLUBS:

Download the super cool ASKING FOR A FRIEND Book Club Kit right here!


Sign up for Pickle Me This: The Digest

Sign up to my Substack! Best of the blog delivered to your inbox each month. The Digest also includes news and updates about my creative projects and opportunities for you to work with me.


My Books

The Doors
Twitter Pinterest Pinterest Good Reads RSS Post