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
Start with the basics – There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something.
9. The Hot Rock by Donald Westlake
Learn by example – how NOT to pull off the perfect crime…
8. Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief
For those who can’t decide on whether to operate on the side of good or evil…
7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Learn to aim high – One was a book thief. The other stole the sky.
6. The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton
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
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
Planning is a must! And it’s always a good idea to keep things in the family…
3. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
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
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
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!
The Book's the Thing 
Burglary 101 – love it. My jam is women’s fiction, but Women’s Fiction 101 is a bit boring. I’ll need to think of a more interesting sub-topic…..
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It was hard not to stick to regular mysteries or thrillers!
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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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Thanks! Let me know what you think of the Book Thief…I still need to read that one!
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Artemis – The Book Thief – The Hobbit!!! These are PERFECT. Such a great list! And such a cute topic – Burgling 101. Love it!
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Thank you! 😄
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Swooping by again to say (again) how much I enjoyed this list of books. Very well done. Okay, I’ll leave you alone . . .
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Swoop by anytime – I’m happy to have you here!
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Hah! What a fabulous theme for a collection of books.
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It was a fun list to create!
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Great topic. I often think that people who read a lot of crime fiction are probably pretty dangerous because they’ve run through so many crime scenarios in their mind.
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That is true… 🙂
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You’ve chosen a really good topic and all of these books sound awesome, so I will have to check them out 🙂
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Thanks – Hope you find one you like!
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This is a subject I expected today! Really interesting list – it’s not something I would normally read about but these look great.
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This is *not* a subject I expected today – that’s what I meant!
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Lol-i didn’t even miss the “not”!
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I didn’t realize how many books on the subject I had read until I started this list!
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I love this topic! The only one I’ve read is the Agatha Christie but The Book Thief is on my TBR. Now that I’m thinking about it I have at least one Lawrence Block buried in my shelves which I need to go look for and House of Thieves looks great.
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I LOVE the Bernie Rhodenbarr series, but Lawrence Block’s other stuff is good too. I still have to get to the Book Thief also…
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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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What an interesting list. Like the idea behind it. Good choices.
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I’ve been meaning to read the Artemis Fowl series for years. For some reason, I just never get to it… And I love that we have the Hobbit and The Book Thief in common. Go burglars!
Great list!
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You have a bunch on your list I haven’t read yet – more for the TBR pile….
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Yay! I’m sorry… Well, not really. If it makes you feel better, I went through the same thing today looking at everyone’s list!
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I usually do on Tuesdays!
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hahahaha! What an awesomely creative idea for a class. I would take it 🙂 My TTT
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Thank you. And yours doesn’t sound bad either! 🙂
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I love that Poirot “sacrifices” his mustaches in The Veiled Lady. 🙂 The Audrey Hepburn film How to Steal a Million would fit well on your list. It’s based on an obscure short story by George Bradshaw called Venus Rising.
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And what a sacrifice that is for him! 🙂 I haven’t seen How to Steal a Million – sounds good.
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Awesome idea! 🙂 #1 sounds really good and #6
Hmmm I’m so happy to see hobbit here too, somehow I connect the world burglar with Bilbo
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I do too – even though it isn’t a mystery I had to include him!
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Loved the Book Thief 😀
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There are only 2 on my list I haven’t read (and maybe re-read), but that is one. I really have to read it!
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Such a fun, clever list! I love that you flipped the classic mystery novel list on its head.
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Such a great topic choice. I also love Margaret Whalen Turner’s The Thief.
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I haven’t heard of that one- I will go check it out on Goodreads!
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what a good idea! books för burgling! thank you for a great list! Artemis Fowl seems like an thrilling aquaintance
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He would be interesting to hang around with!
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This was a fun list, and I loved that you had The Hobbit on here! Bilbo was a great burglar.
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One of my favorite burglars! 😀
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Artemis Fowl, such great books! Loved The Book Thief also. Have you tried Heist Society by Ally Carter? It’s all about a group of teenage thieves and your list just made me think of that, so I wondered if you’d read it?
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2015/08/25/top-ten-tuesday-19/
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I haven’t – thanks for the recommendation!
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No problem!
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I agree, such a clever list. Enjoyed it😀
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Thank you!
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Burgling 101! 😂 Clever! Good list.
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Thank you! 🙂
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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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Here’s my list
http://hiddenstaircase.net/2015/08/25/ttt-top-ten-books-that-would-be-on-your-syllabus-if-you-taught-time-travel-101/
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Time Travel – great topic!
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They were fun to come up with, and Bernie Rhodenbarr is one of my favorite sleuths. If you like mysteries with lots of references to other mysteries, The Burglar in the Library is a good one!
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That sounds like fun! I will add that one for sure.
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I loved the Artemis Fowl books as a kid! I also enjoyed how Artemis would re-evaluate his strengths and weaknesses if his plans went awry.
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Me too – I still enjoy re-listening to the audiobooks every now and then…
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