Booksellers around the world have informally reported for decades that certain books “disappear” from shelves far more often than others – the Bible and dictionaries consistently show up in such unofficial rankings, alongside, surprisingly for many, large art books and photo albums.
The explanation has less to do with a book’s commercial value than with accessibility – large books, hard to hide under a coat, are paradoxically “borrowed without return” less often than small books, easy to slip into a pocket or a bag.
The phenomenon, though never rigorously measured on a global scale, says something charming about human nature: people tend to “steal” the books they genuinely care about, not the most expensive ones.
Still, a good reason to buy your own copy, however tempting that “forgotten” loan might be.
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