musings on book thieves.
The fellow knows his stuff, but is clearly working from a new book store perspective (Seattle is probably the only market left on the West Coast with a healthy ecosystem of independent new bookstores).
This comment gives him away:
It might have belonged to an unscrupulous used bookseller who sent the homeless out, Fagin-like, to do his bidding, or it might have been another book thief helping a semi-illiterate friend identify the valuable merchandise.
The Urban Camper population has its own data stream and doesn't need input from a used book dealer to figure out what's going to make them a buck.
Also, any used book dealer who does more than recycle Danielle Steel pocket books can SMELL stolen books from across the street.
The type of books people sell tell you a lot about them.
When the books you're seeing don't match up with the person selling them, a bell goes off.
And it is impossible to finesse a new book to look like an old one.
Or rather, doing a good enough job to fool a book dealer would require a level of craft that made the exercise pointless.
Books that have actually been read have a certain ineffable quality.
It can't be duplicated by taking a new book and letting a gorilla sling it around for a while.
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