A riot of books

[ladyofastolat]

I read an article today that most young people find books boring. The evidence for this was that when those riots happened in 2011, sometimes the only unlooted shop in a street was the bookshop

Comments

[wellinghall]

But surely flatscreen TVs (are there any other sorts now?) are even trickier. I don't think even my sturdiest Bag for Life could cope with 20 of them; and as for trying to carry that many in my arms ...

[ladyofastolat]

Yeah, but even if you can only carry one, you've got yourself several hundred pounds worth of stuff for free, whereas an armful of books from a regular High Street bookshop would be worth far less than that. Mind you, they can probably withstand dropping and jostling a bit more than a TV can, as long as you don't mind a few scuffed edges.

[wellinghall]

http://www.cecilcourt.co.uk/

It's a good job there hasn't been a riot in Cecil Court ...

[ladyofastolat]

Yes, it did occur to me as I was writing that that it would be a different situation with antiquarian bookshops. Still, you'd have to know what you were looking for the get the best value. Sounds like a place for a carefully considered heist, not a spontaneous riot. (Neither of which I am planning to do, I hasten to add, in case they're reading this.)

[leesa_perrie]

LOL! I think Impasse of Politeness would be a great name for An English band!! :D :D

And so right - why grab books, when you can grab a laptop or TV or something of a much higher value?

[steepholm]

If I were to riot in a bookshop, I think I'd go to the physical shop first to check out the titles I wanted to trash, but then I'd go home and hack the relevant pages on Amazon.

[wellinghall]

Heh :-)

[ladyofastolat]

*laughs*

[lycoris]

*laughing a lot* This is a wonderful post which I agree with. I mean, what's the point of looting books anyway? You can't SELL the things (unless it's a rare book shop you loot and then you have to be the kind of person who can work out where to sell a rare book and how to treat it and you just know running around with it in a riot has taken away some of the value ...

[lizarfau]

I can't believe that that was their evidence! Most young people didn't riot in 2011. How ridiculous.

[ladyofastolat]

To be fair, it was said in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way, and he also cited other (better) evidence. But his point was that, yes, of course loads of people didn't riot, but those who did weren't, for the most part, professional rioters or career criminals, but "ordinary" people.