Booksellers Defend Their Honor

As a used-book dealer, I felt victimized by the broad-brush painting of used-book dealers as fences for stolen books in “Literary Larceny” (Oct. 11).

Most used-book dealers are either out-of-print dealers who do not want current titles or paperback traders who have no use for hardback books.

Who sells us books? Mostly folks who are moving.

Though Thomas Guides and photography books are “book-lifted” most often in Los Angeles, according to the story, I have never been offered a current Thomas Guide, nor have I seen one offered by another used-book dealer, and most stolen photography books must be gracing the coffee tables of the thieves.

In today’s market, the money just is not there except for sophisticated thieves who know books well, and they seek not current titles, but old and rare books.

So while I sympathize with my colleagues in the new-book trade, I feel they let their paranoid feelings get away from them. I doubt any used-book dealers send out book-lifters. On the contrary, we network to prevent trafficking in stolen books. Our professional literature publicizes this thievery, book by book, so we will not accept questionable merchandise. In our business, a dealer’s integrity is his or her most important asset.

JERRY BLAZ

Reseda