On the bedside table:
Article: BookRunner: what's the shelf-life of electric sheep?
In Philip K. Dick's dystopian novel of the future, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (aka Bladerunner), the alert signal used by the authorities to call for the immediate forced apprehension of a rogue android is to yell "runner"....
I used to work in an independent bookstore in the financial district in San Francisco. Every day at noon, and then again at 5pm, the store was overrun by folks shopping for books and magazines. Along with them frequently were "shady" types who liked to blend in with the crush of legitimate browsers and melt into every nook and cranny in the stacks. All employees were instructed to be on the lookout at all times for shop-lifters; as much as I hate to admit it the staff, wise to the game, engaged in a kind of "profiling" that occasionally resulted in confrontations and even some chases. It all seemed rather odd to me-- what did these apparent street people want with books? Could there really be a black market for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? That seems to be the case...
It turns out we were't alone; in an article written for a Seattle paper a local independent book seller shares his experiences and reveals the Most Stolen Book List... more»
I have started, the Book liberation Front, to curb my propensity for
continually filling all the available space in my crib with books. Now when
I buy a book as soon as I've read it I give it to another person on the
agreement that they in turn, after they have read it, pass it on.