Bukowski is the number one most stolen author (1 Viewer)

[Rekrab]

...According to Publisher's Weekly:

http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/PWxyz/?p=5788

It's disappointing, but the blog's author attributes this fact with "excrement and vomit" instead of literary quality.

 

[Bill Sikes]

I am more curious, if anybody have ever found Bukowski books at Goodwill or Thrift stores? I found Burroughs "Naked Lunch" and "Junky," and even Fante "Brotherhood of the Grape" published in 1977. All of them in Biloxi, MS American Thrift Store about 100miles east of NOLA.

 

[bospress.net]

Well, according to the many, many folks that posted on the article (many of whom worked at bookstores), the most stolen books are bibles, and anything dealing with the occult. Funny, Publishers weekly made a smart decision by making up the most stolen books instead of risking a boycott by the religious right if they actually told the truth.

When I worked at bookstores, the vast majority of stuff stolen was the porno mags. It was almost always underage kids or awkward young men who were too ashamed to buy it. I guess with the internet, no one buys porno magazines anymore.

Bill

 

[Rekrab]

My wife works in a bookstore and she says books by Bukowski aren't stolen much any more -- they were in the past. Like Bill said, it's mostly Bibles, the occult, drug books, sex books, and certain literary authors, along with Sci-Fi and Paranormal Romance. Many younger readers aren't even sure who Buk and the Beats were.

I have never found Bukowski books in a thriftshop, but I have found William S. Burroughs.

 

[Black Swan]

I found Kerouac at the thrift shop.
Always look for Buk. I don't think that anyone discards his books. How could anyone, unless they don't read.

 

[The Fellmonger]

I tried once - got caught and had to put it back. I was young, foolish, and poor and Buk was still alive. Now just foolish and poor.

 

[Bukfan]

Funny, that people are stealing bibles, but I guess you have to read about the commandment about not stealing before you can apply it. :wb:

 

[Purple Stickpin]

I've posted here before that in the mid-late '90s I was looking for Buk in Harvard Square, and more than one bookstore told me that they had to keep all their Bukowski behind the registers because he was the most-stolen writer they carried. I suppose them damn intellectuals needed their excrement and vomit too.

 

[Rekrab]

I wonder if the mainstreaming of Bukowski (Ecco editions, the Huntington Library, films) has made him seem less edgy to the rebellious young who are most likely to steal?

I've found a couple Brautigans in thrift stores, maybe Kerouac once, Lovecraft once. People mainly donate crap books, so the thrift stores are monuments to mediocrity and averageness. I am always amazed that all those crap books once sold for good money. Generally speaking, people have shit for taste.

 

[d gray]

funny thread - all the second hand bookstores in toronto have his stuff behind the desk cause of that.

i found a great condition first ed of 'erections' in a used bookstore for $10 years ago. i had $10 to my name
and was on my way to buy groceries for the week.

...it still rots me that i didn't grab it.

 

[christopher]

Theft, in any regard is horrible, but, I feel extra bad when its art-related - books, music, movies, etc.

 

[Rekrab]

funny thread - all the second hand bookstores in toronto have his stuff behind the desk cause of that.

i found a great condition first ed of 'erections' in a used bookstore for $10 years ago. i had $10 to my name
and was on my way to buy groceries for the week.

...it still rots me that i didn't grab it.

Agh! I thought the story would end with you blowing the grocery money on the book. My sympathies.

 

[d gray]

i know - it would've been so heroic - "goes without food for a week for bukowski"

guess i'm not a true "bukster"

 

[Rekrab]

Going without food for Bukowski. That's the opposite of going without Bukowski for food, which happens when you sell off parts of your collection to buy groceries. That I've done far too many times.

 

[informal]

Seriously? Food Stamps, friends, family... you couldn't of sold anything else or even asked a stranger for a sandwich? Shit I can go a week with only 4 cans of spaghettios no problem.

 

[Rekrab]

Seriously. Four kids, a mortgage, debts. Tapped out and overloaded. You get desperate and sell anything not nailed down. And some things sell better than others, like Bukowski books. My list of cool Buk items sold for $5 - $100 and now worth hundreds and up would be one of those long ones that drop to the floor and roll away, if I'd kept a list. I've been to the well so many times the bucket is scrapping rock. Seriously.

 

[kilgore]

I've only caught one person shoplifting from our shop, and it was a BSP paperback of Pulp. Later when I sold it to a lady, I told her the story (I tracked the kid down) and about how it had been "in a thief's pants" and she got a real kick out of it.

I found a 40th hardcover of Post Office, and a couple dozen Bukowski/Fante books over the years in various thrift stores. That being said, I've been going to maybe five thrift stores a week, every week, for about five years now.

 

[Rekrab]

The odds of finding Bukowski books in a thrift store would have been better in the past. These days, many (most?) thrift stores have staff pickers (or outside "experts") who go through the incoming books and pull out anything of interest. Either these are sold to the expert at below retail value, or they are listed on-line. The good books in these shops never hit the shelves.

In my town, there's one guy who has gotten himself in with every thrift store in town, and he skims the cream on all the books donated to thrift stores, as well as a bunch of annual rummage sales and library sales. Book scouts speak of him with disdain. I've never seen the guy, but I see the effects of his cherry-picking all the time. Once in a while, he screws up and lets a rare book through, but not often. I wonder what sort of premium price he pays for the good stuff? I bet it's low, like $1.50 instead of the usual $1.00 they would charge the public for the book if they put it out on the shelves.

 

[roni]

[...] the occult [...]

these must all be Satanic books. People who are into White Magic would be too afraid about their next reincarnation for an act of stealing.

 

[d gray]

These days, many (most?) thrift stores have staff pickers (or outside "experts") who go through the incoming books and pull out anything of interest. Either these are sold to the expert at below retail value, or they are listed on-line. The good books in these shops never hit the shelves.

i know - that drives me crazy. and it's so easy with the internet to find out what something's worth it's rare anything
good slips through.

i found a first edition of animal farm at a thrift store in south carolina last year. my wife's parents have a place on
hilton head island and the thrift stores are great. there's a big retirement community and they all have dough
so the stuff that ends up in the thrift stores can be mind-boggling.

 

[Rekrab]

That's a nice find. This past year I've found firsts of Raymond Chandler and Mark Twain that the screeners missed, as well as a few oddball old books that looked like nothing but are rare and fairly cool. They can't know everything, but they do reduce the chances of the common person finding anything good.