How do you read a book that you can’t buy in bookstores or find in libraries… because people keep stealing them since the title is Steal This Book? Even used copies are selling for double the retail list price. By reading a ripped off copy on the internet, of course. 
Written by activist Abbie Hoffman in 1970, Steal This Book is basically a counter-culture guidebook to that era, and is self-described as a “manual of survival in the prison that is Amerika.” It promotes its own view of morality, which is that it is okay to steal from everyone from the government to business owners like grocery stores, but not other Yippie activists. The “Survive!” section is basically a “How to see the US on zero dollars a day” travel book.
Whether the ways it describes to rip-off shit are legal or illegal is irrelevant. The dictionary of law is written by the bosses of order. Our moral dictionary says no heisting from each other. To steal from a brother or sister is evil. To not steal from the institutions that are the pillars of the Pig Empire is equally immoral.
Wow, Sproul Plaza flashbacks. The topic covered are very wide-ranging, although many are now out-dated. I’ll “steal” the description at Wikipedia:
The book includes advice on such topics as growing marijuana, starting a pirate radio station, living in a commune, stealing food, shoplifting, stealing credit cards, preparing a legal defense, making pipe bombs, and obtaining a free buffalo from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Most people will probably be offended by a lot of the content, but I basically viewed it as a mix of history, entertainment, and knowledge. There are even congee recipes from National Liberation Front fighters. I’m also the type of guy who likes to know how all the scams work. Samples:
Free postage: “When mailing to the same city, address the envelope or package to yourself and put the name of the person you are sending it to where the return address generally goes. Mail it without postage and it will be “returned” to the sender.”
Free food: “In restaurants where you pay at the door just before leaving, there are a number of free-loading tricks that can be utilized. After you’ve eaten a full meal and gotten the check, go into the restroom. When you come out go to the counter or another section of the restaurant and order coffee and pie. Now you have two bills. Simply pay the cheaper one when you leave the place.”
Panhandling: “A good prop is a charity canister. You can get them by going to the offices of a mainstream charity and signing up as a collector. Don’t feel bad about ripping them off. Charities are the biggest swindle around. 80% or more of the funds raised by honky charities go to the organization itself. New fancy cars for the Red Cross, inflated salaries for the executives of the Cancer Fund, tax write-offs for Jerry Lewis. You get the picture.”
Never even thought about this: You can get $150 to $600 in advance by willing your body to a University medical school. They have you sign a lot of papers and put a tattoo on your foot. You can get the tattoo removed and sell your body to the folks across the street.
