A Burglars Guide to the City, Geoff Manaugh
A Burglars Guide to the City, Geoff Manaugh
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A Burglar's Guide to the City

Author: Geoff Manaugh

Narrator: Scott Aiello

Unabridged: 7 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/05/2016


Synopsis

Encompassing nearly 2,000 years of heists and tunnel jobs, break-ins and escapes, A Burglar's Guide to the City offers an unexpected blueprint to the criminal possibilities in the world all around us. 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 LAPD. Air Support Division, and architects past and present, the book dissects the built environment from both sides of the law. 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 that listeners will never enter a bank again without imagining how to loot the vault or walk down the street without planning the perfect getaway.

About The Author

GEOFF MANAUGH is the author of BLDGBLOG (bldgblog.com), one of the most acclaimed architecture sites on the web. He has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, New Scientist, The Los Angeles Times, and many other publications, including the live-event series Pop-Up Magazine. He has also lectured and taught at design institutions around the world.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kevin on April 19, 2016

I've been putting this off because there are two types of reviews that I like to write: those where I loved the book and want to sing its praises, and those where I really despised it and can't wait to tear it to pieces. When a book is just ... mediocre ... I can't get up the energy to bother to say......more

Goodreads review by Fredrik on October 28, 2023

Fun and inventive, I just wish this text stuck a little closer to its central conceit, which is something I've talked about with other books before. The reviews here are generally too mean and oddly aggrieved, which happens on Goodreads, but I do think that the general observation that there's a lit......more

Goodreads review by Tom on April 08, 2016

I wanted to love this book and thought I was going to from the opening chapter but it meanders. The author is weirdly repetitive at times (e.g., the author is weirdly repetitive at times) and the book can't seem to figure out if it wants to be pop science or more philosophical architecture discussio......more

Goodreads review by Bibliovoracious on November 05, 2018

Great heist stories folded into a mix of history, architecture and society. Loved it! I was impressed at the diversity of topics it's possible to touch when going deep into one thing. It could definitely inspire some paranoia, since it swiftly cracks the illusion of personal/home "security", and I le......more

Goodreads review by Atila on March 18, 2017

Um livro curioso em cima de uma boa premissa: como um ladrão vê uma cidade. E entrega exatamente isso, como bandidos usam diferentes partes de construções para fazer um assalto. De fechaduras a cofres, de túneis a saídas de emergência, achei um livro bem legal e inesperado. Ele não romantiza assalta......more