Pharmacies keep their narcotics behind the counter. Supermarkets keep cigarettes behind the counter as well. In each case, the idea was to make certain neither drugs nor nicotine get into the hands of the vulnerable. That bookstores keep certain titles behind the counter, however, is surprising. But that is precisely what Publishers Weekly says in July 2011. It seems that some books are stolen more frequently than others, particularly books by Charles Bukowski and William S. Burroughs and, of course, Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book. While no one ought to applaud theft, the fact that there are people today so devoted to reading that they would consider stealing books is a response to the literary elitists who claim that life today is a cultural wasteland.
