TTT – Top Ten Books for Burgling 101

~ Erika K

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday they post a new Top Ten list prompt. This week’s list is Top Ten Books That Would Be On Your Syllabus If You Taught “X” 101 (examples: YA fantasy 101, feminist literature 101, magic in YA 101, classic YA lit 101, world-building 101).  I read mostly mysteries and thrillers, so my first thought was to do Detecting 101. The more I tried to come up with titles, however, the more I kept thinking of books that would work better at the other end of the spectrum, so here you have it. My required reading for Burgling 101! (All Fiction – no real-life how-to’s here! 🙂 )

Be sure to let me know what books would be on your list this week in the comments, or leave a link back to your own TTT post!

10. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Start with the basics – There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something.

9. The Hot Rock by Donald Westlake
The Hot Rock (Dortmunder, #1)
Learn by example – how NOT to pull off the perfect crime…

8. Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief
Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief (Arsène Lupin, #1)
For those who can’t decide on whether to operate on the side of good or evil…

7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Book Thief
Learn to aim high – One was a book thief. The other stole the sky.

6. The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton
The Lock Artist
These are the methods of crude men. They can’t face the challenge that a safe presents to them. They can’t face the safe on its own terms. 

5. The Veiled Lady by Agatha Christie
The Veiled Lady: A Short Story (Hercule Poirot)
Only a short story, but who better to teach us how to use the little gray cells to commit burglary than Hercule Poirot himself!

4. House of Thieves by Charles Belfoure
House of Thieves: A Novel
Planning is a must! And it’s always a good idea to keep things in the family…

3. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl (Artemis Fowl, #1)
We can all learn a little something from Artemis…A genius. A criminal mastermind. A millionaire. And he is only twelve years old.

2. Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung
Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (A.J. Raffles, The Gentleman Thief #1)
A little lesson in attitude from Raffles – Money lost — little lost. Honour lost — much lost. Pluck lost — all lost.

1. The Burglar on the Prowl by Lawrence Block
The Burglar on the Prowl (Bernie Rhodenbarr, #10)
A lecture on lockpicking from Bernie Rhodenbarr – They keep coming up with better locks and more sophisticated alarm systems, and reprobates like me keep finding ways to get past the locks and around the alarm systems. 

Did you get here from the FICTION WRITERS BLOG HOP on Julie Valerie’s Book Blog? Click here: http://www.julievalerie.com/fiction-writers-blog-hop-aug-2015 to go back!

56 thoughts on “TTT – Top Ten Books for Burgling 101”

  1. Pingback: Blog Spotlight – The Book’s The Thing | Shih Tzu Book Reviews

  3. This is awesome! I’m personally not a fan of many of the books you included (I haven’t read them but they dont seem like my types of books) however I loved The Hobbit and will be reading the Book Thief soon.
    xoxo.😄

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  10. Great list! Looks like you love thied stories, have you read The Genleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch? I think you’d like The Lies of Locke Lamora. I bet you will like the thief kid Jimmy the Hand character in Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar Saga too!

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  24. Fun choice! And I don’t think I’ve read any books on here besides The Hobbit. They all look great. I need to add some of them to my TBR list. I love the cover on that Raffles book!

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