A Burglar's Guide to the City
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.97 (759 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0374117268 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 304 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-08-29 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"Really sounded like a fascinating concept" according to J. Chase. Meh. Really sounded like a fascinating concept. But chapter after chapter goes nowhere and doesn't develop any cohesive points. A few interesting anecdotes thrown in here and there, but they are rare bright spots in an otherwise very dull and pedantic, overly long book.. "Great concept" according to TV Lord. I really wanted to like this book. The topic is fascinating. But for some reason, it just did not grab me with the same urgency to read as other books I had recently read. Not sure whether it's the author's style or perhaps me over-anticipating my interest in it. But sadly the book is languishing half-read on my Kindle as I move on to other things.. A little overwrought Ernst Schoen-rene As a former professional burglar and architecture enthusiast, I wanted to have more of a roundup of exotic crimes. Instead, we spend a lot of time on mundane things, like ride-alongs with the LAPD helicopter. The prose is often quite overwrought when it's not warranted. As the author says, the truth is that most burglary is mundane and not carried out by master thieves. That's true, but it's also not terribly interesting. Even the parts in which he explores the relationship between the built world and the criminals who find other ways to use it
Geoff Manaugh is the founder of BLDGBLOG, one of the most popular architecture sites on the Web.
Air Support Division, and architects past and present, the book dissects the built environment from both sides of the law. You'll never see the city the same way again.At the core of A Burglar's Guide to the City is an unexpected and thrilling insight: how any building transforms when seen through the eyes of someone hoping to break into it. Studying architecture the way a burglar would, Geoff Manaugh takes readers through walls, down elevator shafts, into panic rooms, up to the buried vaults of banks, and out across the rooftops of an unsuspecting city.With the help of FBI Special Agents, reformed bank robbers, private security consultants, the L.A.P.D. Whether picking padlocks or climbing the walls of high-rise apartments, finding gaps in a museum's surveillance routine or discussing home invasions in ancient Rome, A Burglar's Guide to the City has the tools, the tales, and the x-ray vision you need to see architecture as nothing more than an obstacle that can be outwitted and undercut.Full of real-life heists-both spectacular and absurd-A Burglar's Guide to the City ensures readers will never enter a bank again without imagining how to loot the vault or
On one hand, he presents a 2,000-year history of break-ins, heists, and break-outs--a litany of unlikely, bent geniuses and their extraordinary efforts in the service of subverting and outwitting security, their energy often exceeding the requirements of straight-world success. An Best Book of April 2016: Geoff Manaugh has written a caper of a book. On another, Manaugh draws on the real-world experience and acumen of criminals and security experts alike--as well as his own esoteric architectural sensibility, as seen in his fantastic BLDGBLOG--analyzing structures from the perspectives of would-be breakers-and-enterers--those possessed of a sort of spatial disorder that prevents them from using architecture like the rest of us--and those who would keep them out. Unexpected and engrossing, A Burglar’s Guide to the City will change the way you look at buildings.--Jon Foro