I recently finished A Burglar's Guide To The City by Geoff Manaugh. It wasn't the best book I've ever read, but I did learn a lot of interesting things.
I'll never be a burglar myself. I do admire them, because they think in a very creative way. I was drawn to this book, because I wanted to gain insight into how burglars think. This book gave me exactly that while also focusing on topics I didn't necessarily care about. I think it was a pretty well written book. Geoff Manaugh has a lot of research and evidence for his claims. He talked to a lot of police officers, burglars themselves, and a number of other different types of people. He talks about how burglars have to manipulate architecture in order to succeed with their heists. Manaugh also talks about a number of successful heists, which I found pretty interesting.
The book consists of a lot of side stories. The chapters are pretty long, around 30 to 40 pages each. Each chapter is broken into small sections with various subheadings. I didn't like how long the chapters were. At times, the book was so dense that it was pretty hard to read. It dragged on at points as well. It covers a lot more than just burglars, which I didn't like at first but then some of them grew on me. For instance, Manuagh talks a lot about designing the perfect city. That indirectly relates to burglars, since burglars have to use the city to pull of their crimes. Manaugh also goes on and on about the laws surrounding burglary, theft, etc. Some of my favorite sections were about safe rooms and the tools of the trade.
Overall, this was a pretty good book. I enjoyed reading it and think I learned some useful things. It wasn't quite what I expected, but still good overall. I'd recommend it if you're interested in heists, burglary, architecture, or want to gain new perspectives. Thanks for looking!
No comments:
Post a Comment