bellwether

As a verb, to check out library books that one has no interest in reading so as to create a false impression of demand. From the novella Bellwether, by Connie Willis, where the protagonist routinely checks out copies of classic literature that she has already read, and frequently owns, after finding that the library was discarding copies of Dickens because of a lack of circulation. Similar to phyrangulation/freeping, but offline.

I only picked up Ragged Dick because I was bellwethering at the beginning of the alphabet, but I got bored and started reading it, and now I've got the rest of Alger's stuff on hold.

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