Steal: a cultural history of shoplifting

Did you know Jane Austin’s aunt, Leigh Perrot, was a kleptomaniac? This is one of the more interesting facts to come out of Rachel Shteir's Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting.

I’m a big fan of the cultural history genre and I had high hopes for this book, as shoplifting is such a fascinating topic and this book is apparently the first full scale study of it to be published.

Having worked in retail for many years I'm also very aware of shoplifting, otherwise known as 'shrinkage', from a practical perspective!

But overall, I found Shteir’s book a very uneven read and frustratingly disjointed. I found myself wanting to really get into the book, but the narrative was just everywhere and there was little done to connect the chapters together into a coherent theme.

For example, there were really interesting facts about the ‘loss prevention’ industry and how much ‘shrinkage’ cost retailers per year. But these issues were sort of scattered throughout the book and just when you thought it would get interesting, Shteir would move onto a another topic.

Perhaps, I’m being a bit harsh but I guess the bar was set so high with Siddhartha Mukherjee’s magisterial cultural history of cancer: The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.

That being, said the best parts of the book were the analysis of shoplifting as a gendered crime and the increasing punitative punishments metered out in some parts of the United States. Also the chapter on celebrity shoplifters was fascinating and it was a clever hook to start the book with one of the most infamous celebrity shoplifters, Winona Ryder.

But overall, I was really disappointed in this book.

Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks

I’ve always been a big fan of fantasy fiction and will own up to a bit of a Lord of the Rings obsession. Unwrapped LoR playing cards anyone? After all, who wouldn’t want be Legolas? Life just seem so much better….and blonder in Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

While perusing my favourite online journal Salon, I happened to read Ethan Gilsdorf’s article, “How Dungeons and Dragons change my life”, which then led me to his book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks.

Fantasy Freaks is a journalistic adventure into the world of Dungeons and Dragon, LARP (live action role play) and MMORPG (massive multi-player online role playing game). Tell you what, I learnt a lot acronyms after reading the book! Gilsdorf also visits Dragon*Con, which sounds like a real blast, and goes on multiple Lord of the Ring tours.

As well as a being a great introduction to these cultures, the most interesting part was Gilsdorf’s interviews of these ‘freaks’ and ‘geeks’. These were people who were passionately devoted to and immersed in these fantasy worlds. Most of his interviewees were quite grounded, funny and intelligent people who were not only self-aware about their little obsessions, but also able to clearly articulate the actual value they got from them.

This was the key theme running throughout the book: the value of fantasy and gaming culture. Gilsdorf provides his own moving account of how fantasy, in particular D&D helped him survive a difficult childhood and actually grow as a person. I did lose a bit of interest in the book three quarters through it and was often frustrated as Gilsdorf brought the story back to his relationship problems. His complaint that his girlfriend didn't understand or respect his fascination with fantasy was a bit yawn inducing.

Interestingly, Lev Grossman recently wrote a passionate and funny article: "Wanted:Respect for Wizards, Orc which really resonated with me. I am currently deeply immersed in the fantasy world of Georg RR Martin. I realised that you can't just dip your toe in Martin, you need to go the whole hog and embrace/ invest in the the immense world he has created.

I feel at times that it has slowly taken over my life. It’s not often that TV show makes you reconsider book, but the recent HBO production of Game of Thrones drove me back to reading Book 2: Clash of Kings because I simply HAD to find out what happened to all these characters.

Scary thing is that there are three more books to go!

Carte Blanche – New James Bond by Jeffery Deaver

Carte Blanche is Jeffery Deaver’s reboot of the James Bond series and it doesn’t disappoint.

I haven’t read any of the other Bond novels, preferring to watch the movies, but anything Deaver writes is definitely worth reading.

Deaver delivers another page turner with some surprising plots twist and great dialogue. Rather than fit into the world of Bond, I felt that Deaver was able to fit the Bond character into his type of story telling. Which is always about keeping the reader guessing with many delicious misdirections, while maintaining a believability and subtley.

Plus Deaver does really interesting and impressive villians, who often have unusual and weird inclinations/obsessions.

In the first few chapters, I thought Deaver was channelling the master Federick Forsyth. Usually, Deaver’s books are set in America, but here in the world of Bond it’s all about M15, M16, GCHQ and COBRA. That is definitely the world of Forsyth, so perhaps a homage?

The new technology described in the book was really fun; Bond uses all these great spy apps on his iphone to defeat the badies.

If you want a great read over a long cold weekend, the I’d recommend Carte Blanche. Hell, I love Deaver so I’d recommend anything written by him! Just be prepared to stay up late reading beyond your bed time.

That being said, I think the Bond franchise owners made a very cleaver and astute decision to pick Deaver. He really does bring Bond into present and in a very believable way.

Bossypants - Tina Fey

I’m a big fan of Tina Fey. I thought her impersonation of Sarah Palin for Saturday Night Live was one of the highlights of the 2008 American Presidential elections.

And I also loved 30 Rock, especially the first three seasons. So there was no doubt that I would be reading her biography, Bossypants.

The good news is that the book is just like an episode of 30 Rock: smart, funny, heavy on the political humour and sarcasm, plus a couple of laugh out loud moments.

Particularly funny is her chapter on what she calls the biggest issue facing women in America at the moment: the evils of photoshop.

Worth the price of entry alone.

That and the chapter on her honeymoon cruise disaster.

Although the book tracks her career, including working on SNL and 30 Rock, it is particularly light on in terms of any revelations. Indeed, there is I think a conscious lack of any Oprah moments.

Here is her description of why 30 Rock got supported by NBC:

"NBC executives must have seen something of value in my quirky and unique pilot (Alec Baldwin) because they decided for some reason (Alec Baldwin) to 'pick it up.' This means they agreed to make eleven more episodes and maybe show them on TV."

Every time the stories veer towards any sentimentality Fey throws in a very funny, self-depreciating line.

That being, said one of my gripes is that I would definitely have liked some more backstage goss and naming of names!

The book is very readable. I finished it in one sitting and it was a highly enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.

Refuse to Choose! Barbara Sher

I normally stay away from self help books, especially those with “!” or “NOW” and even worse the combo “NOW!” in their title.

But I suspended my disbelief to read Barbara Sher’s Refuse to Choose!, after it was recommended by Sarah Wilson.

Sher argues that when it comes to careers, there are two types of people out there: scanners and deep divers.

And each type is fundamentally motivated by different rewards:

• Deep divers are happy with fitting into one defined career path or profession. They seek specialised knowledge, financial security and recognition.
  

• Scanners finds it difficult to choose one career and be defined by it professionally. Instead, scanners need to do lots of different things, are always interested in what else is out there. They seek different rewards and often end up having a series of careers and spend their time "scanning the horizon, thinking about their next move."

For someone who has dabbled in a lot of different things and rarely feels completely satisfied in one career, this book really resonated with me.

I have often had the "it's time to buckle down and chose one thing" inner dialogue with myself. Or worse yet, the morally destructive comparing myself with my friends and their seemingly straight forward career trajectories.

Sher writes:

“Almost every case of low self-esteem, shame, frustration, feelings of inadequacy, indecisiveness, and inability to get into action simply disappeared the moment they understood that they were Scanners and stopped trying to be somebody else.”

In her book, Sher breaks down scanners further into different types of scanners and maps out career/life strategies for each one.

I found the advice and strategies quite helpful, moreover it was the sense of relief that I could be put a name to my feelings.

I guess that is what self-books are all about, putting a name to our problems and making us feel understood and part of a community.

I'm still working though some of Sher's advice, which must of course be tempered by the reality of our current economic climate.

While, googling about scanners I came across a great article by Dr. Lauchlan A. K. Mackinnon who puts Sher’s ideas within the context of the market place.

He notes that the contemporary workplace favours Divers and there are very few employers willing to take risks in terms of hiring practices. Interstingly, he observes that:

“Australia employers in Melbourne are more conservative and less likely to take a risk and hire on talent rather than track record compared to employers in, for example, Sydney.”

That's bad news for this Scanner living in Melbourne!