British booksellers estimate they lose about $1.5 billion worth of books to theft every year
British booksellers estimate they lose about $1.5 billion worth of books to theft every year. A survey of bookshops showed that the most frequently stolen works were immediately useful to the thieves, particularly street map books. “I’ve been in bookselling for 20 years and the London A-Z is the most stolen book in the world,” says Patrick Neale, who used to work at a London bookshop. “A-Zs were like porn—you had keep them under the till.” And one convicted thief, who stole Lonely Planet guides to order, purloined 35,000 of them in one year before being caught.