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If you don't like ebooks, you can get used books for free. Many places have free bookshelves outdoors or in cafes where you can take and leave as many books as you want. (OK, mostly bestseller crap but I've found some gems.) There's also bookcrossing. Antique bookstores are nice for browsing, but I haven't visited one in years and I haven't bought anything there for more than a decade. To buy a specific book that's not available for free, bookfinder is much better than a brick and mortar store.

not every real book is worth more than an electronic copy

Totally couldn't agree more. However, when you start reading a book you're going to make an investment of your time. Buying the paper copy; or, even better, getting the electronic copy free from Gutenberg is a way of protecting that investment. You're sure you can easily share it later. Since you can never be sure which books are worthwhile it's worth getting all of them DRM free.

There are also other ways to cut down that 90%. Sell your books in bulk to second hand book stores. Put them about through various book sharing schemes. Sell them in low volume through some reseller on the internet.

Even better is to find a lending library near you. Get most books from there. You get the benefits of cheap access and you can still even share the books.

Finally, a good thing to do is to subscribe to a source of book reviews. The New Yorker or the London Review of Books for example. Or most decent newspapers have a review seciton. Even slashdot has reviews, though they might not fit your taste. This will give you a better chance of buying books you like, so most books will be ones you want to keep and/or share.

Take the (wiped) laptop to Starbucks. Sit down and enjoy a frothy drink. When no one is looking, get up and leave, without the computer. Think Bookcrossing but for laptops.

I think it's more like bookcrossing You've already paid for it, now you're letting someone else use it. With books, publishers might not like it because they sell fewer books. With wifi, ISPs may sell fewer connections. Either way it's not stealing.

You burn them, or at least the ones which you're unlikely to read again.

Or if that offends you, set them free...

Absolutely!

This is just such a fantastic idea. We all love the excitement & intrigue of a journey, and sending these wooden people out on their own with only the hope that the public helps them on their way must be both exciting and slightly nerve racking for the artist. Almost like a father letting his children free to roam.

It reminds me of http://www.bookcrossing.com/ where you set a book free by giving it to someone or leaving it on a bus or train (don't try this with a plane, they are a little jumpy about this) and the idea is that someone picks it up, reads your note and enters the details on the site. You can then track your book's journey.

I wish this art project all the best and love the juxtaposition of materials used in its construction

However, she is quite real if you trust her history on bookcrossing (although currently out at the farm and thus unable to post); she's of their top posters--I just don't have the time to sockpuppet to that extent. As to whether or not we are coupled, you could ask one of her livejournal friends.

I don't think that /. account is her, though(I would have friended her account by now if she had one)

Now that you mention it, I should get her to sign my GPG key :D

http://www.bookcrossing.com/

If you love something, set it free!

-- Pete.

You can assign each book a reference number at the site. Crossers can leave a book at any location once they are done. Those who pick the book can then goto the site to login information about where they picked it from and etc.

Pro's and cons to each mechanism:

Dollar bills:- Better to track since they are more widespread in usage as oppose to an eclectic few who might be interested in reading particular books (tastes come into play).

Books:- Their network holds uniform across borders. Dollar bills on the other hand may not be as exchangeable in another country as they are in the U.S.

Then set them free.

That way they get to be read more than once, by many different people, and fulfill their purpose in life. Release your dusty books into the world and let them live again!

Hmm. www.nerdbooks.com doesn't catalog used books on obsolete systems. Amazon does, even if it's through their affiliate used bookstores. Anyone have a useful alternative to Amazon in that case?

For old and used books, Powell Books is good. Bookcrossings is also a good place to check though it's not a bookstore.

What is BookCrossing?

bookcrossing
n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.

Isn't this yet another syndrom associated with advancing technology? I can understand wanting to sneak in a few minutes of productivity during a quiet moment of opportunity but have always tried being discreet (and discrete). But I've seen the described behavior in a local Chicago coffee shop... squatters who were there at different times of the day as I passed through. Not only did they not really appear to be paying customers, they:

• monopolized entire tables capable of seating four with: laptop, some analog of an iPod, spare battery(ies), headhphones, and typically paperwork
• typically were buried in their headphones
• made no eye contact with anyone

I have a friend who has a startup refreshment shop, and foot traffic and available space for paying customers is precious. These shop owners aren't making any fortune with their stores, they (at least my friend) do it out of love of the job (interacting with long-time customers, meeting new people, becoming an established figure of the local community).

I also have another friend who frequents a local Seattle coffee shop a lot. It seems from talking with him he is an honorable patron, but I do get the impression he doesn't interact much with anyone there.

Cell phones, laptops, pdas, portable music devices... they all have driven a somewhat asocial behavior. In public it's mostly annoying, maybe a little rude, sometimes outright boorish, but in a coffe shop, good for the owners to shut down the wireless on weekends (for example...). Sounds like they made a right move based on the almost immediate response and thanks received from regulars.

Frankly, the day cell phones and laptops, etc. become totally uncool in public can't come too soon for me. In the meantime (shameless plug) if you're looking for more social ways of using technology consider and look into BookCrossing.com. It's been mentioned here on slashdot before -- it's a cool way of using technology to share books (something a little less technical, and a lot more social).

Like many virtual communities, BXers like to meet in Real Life sometime. Now no-one is going to stump up a monthly fee. Ah well.

/Joelethan
Free your books at Bookcrossing.com

Like many virtual communities, BXers like to meet in Real Life sometime. Now no-one is going to stump up a monthly fee. Ah well.

/Joelethan
Free your books at Bookcrossing.com

There's a nice little online book trading co-op at http://www.bookcrossing.com./ People share books, trade books, and "release books into the wild" to track them. Kinda fun.

Why not ship the books? Perhaps, because an avid reader with alot of time on their hands can burn through your average trade paperback in a few hours. I also am familiar with shipping books internationally, since my wife used to use http://www.bookcrossing.com/ ship them all over the place. I quickly started questioning the practice when the shipping was close to the cost of the book.

So my guess is that they don't want or can't pay the few hundred dollars it would likely take to ship a large number of books to the reader and were wondering if the slashdot world had any clever solutions.

Under U.S. copyright law, you don't have to actually prove that distribution occured -- it is generally sufficient to make a copyrighted work available for distribution.

If that's the case then these people are completely fucked.

Max

Maybe next time you want to throw out a book, you should try this? I know you didn't enjoy the book, but others might and it strikes me as an unusual social experiment. No, I haven't done it, but I heard about it on the radio and provided you don't get fined for littering it sounds like a good idea!

Why not consider BookCrossing too? Free the public library books!

I like using bookcrossing for the books I want to get rid off. Just for the paperbacks I would throw away otherwise. The others I lend to friends so I can borrow them whenever I need too.

Take a look at Book Crossing. It's a site about sharing books and is similar to your library project. With BookCrossing you register your own books. Then you can "release" them (leave at coffee shop) and hope someone finds them.

There is even a story in Readers Digest.

Koozie.org

Take a look at Book Crossing. It's a site about sharing books and is similar to your library project. With BookCrossing you register your own books. Then you can "release" them (leave at coffee shop) and hope someone finds them.

There is even a story in Readers Digest.

Koozie.org

After looking over Book Crossing I went looking for similar sites.

The best one I saw was Lighter Thief - fun if you're an evil smoker ;)

You register a location and get a number then you can print out the URL and stick it on the side of the lighter.

The idea is that the next person to find it fills in their location and you can track stolen/given away lighters as the move around the country/world.

One lighter I gave to a tourist during the early part of the Edinburgh Festival turned up in Paris, then moved across to Brussels.

Addictive stuff if you have a lot of lighters ..

The same applies to the music industry, book publishing, or any other intellecutal property enterprise. Keep that in mind next time you are firing up your P2P client and downloading the latest "free" software or music or whatever. Remember that your "free" software has a cost - rather than being measured in a few dollars out of your wallet, this cost is measured in people's jobs.

The music/movie industry would have us believe that free distribution = end of profit.

They would seem to disagree:

"Publishers and authors: listen up! We know you may be concerned about all this book-sharing talk, and what it might do to your sales. You may be surprised to know that we have many, many publishers and authors that are big BookCrossing fans. They've seen the paradoxical value in encouraging the sharing of books. In fact, if one were to compare the number of people who buy books based on seeing book reviews here as the books change hands, to the number of people who actually find free books, we can assure you there are far more buyers than finders. This site is not about saving people money. Many of our members, in fact, have started purchasing two copies of every book they pick out, so they can keep one and release the other into the wild! Here's a good forum discussion re: authors, book sales, and bookcrossing that should alleviate any concerns about lost sales."

He would seem to disagree as well.

More here.

True... none have anything to do with piracy, but it would appear that free does not necessitate loss.

Not quite the same as you're looking for, but an interesting idea: Bookcrossing. From the site: "Do you like free books? How about free book clubs?. Well, the books our members leave in the wild are free... but it's the act of freeing books that points to the heart of BookCrossing. Book trading has never been more exciting, more serendipitous, than with BookCrossing. Our goal, simply, is to make the whole world a library. BookCrossing is a book exchange of infinite proportion, the first and only of its kind..."

Close. The link is actually http://www.bookcrossing.com/. Neat idea, although I've had no feedback yet on any of the six books I've released.

have you tried looking at www.bookcrossing.com for how they do it? i believe they tie into an ISBN database somehow...

For what is worth, there is a similar effort out there called Book Crossing. Essentially, you put books in circulation by leaving them in cafés or other public places, for people to find and comment on. I put a couple of books (my most recent one today!) out. Anyway, this creates a virtual roaming library that now has global reach.

Check out their web site; Book Crossing has some neat ideas that could be applied to this project.

Cheers!

The sine qua non of geekery is el cheapo AI textbook AI4U: Mind-1.1 Programmer's Manual.

This brand-new November-2002 open-source artificial intelligence resource book needs to be reviewed here on SlashDot.

The Robot AI Mind is freeware, not shareware, and is listed in the Free Software Donation Directory as an open source AI project not crying for gimme-gimme money-money but rather as quasi-shareware where you get something in return: potentially the rare Gutenberg Bible of public domain AI leading to the Technological Singularity.

Accordingly, the extra request is made here that AI geeks obtain two copies of AI4U : one for themselves, and one that they register with BookCrossing.com and then leave surreptitiously in locations where other AI-prone geeks and wannabe's will find the AI-secrets AI4U textbook. Merry Xmas.

Some people will be interested in BookCrossing.

From the site: "What is BookCrossing, you ask? It's a global book club that crosses time and space. It's a reading group that knows no geographical boundaries. Do you like free books? How about free book clubs?. Well, the books our members leave in the wild are free... but it's the act of freeing books that points to the heart of BookCrossing. Book trading has never been more exciting, more serendipitous, than with BookCrossing. Our goal, simply, is to make the whole world a library. BookCrossing is a book exchange of infinite proportion, the first and only of its kind."

Boy, those greedy Authors Guild bastards are going to love this one. Just imagine a whole world of people reading used books...... And not paying for them!!

I wonder how long it will be before these bookcrossing people are accused of piracy for their philanthropy...

It is also interesting to note that the greedy people in this case have a .org URL, while the philanthropists have a .com URL.

When I read the article, I thought "this is a great idea, but I bet it's only happening in big cities in the USA." Then I saw that some guy has "released" four books in Stevenage, Herts, England, not twenty miles from me. Hurrah!

But you don't have to go outside to find free books. Check the link in my sig for one.

If you don't mind "giving your books away", Book Crossing (http://www.bookcrossing.com) encourages you to drop the books you're finished with off on trains, in cafes or just pass them on to your friends, and then track where they end up.

It's a rather sweetly viral approach.

rOD.

So when you're done with a book, why not recycle it ?

Book Crossing lets you set your unwanted books loose in the wild, with a tracking number in case someone finds it. Basically like Where's George or PhotoTag crossed with GeoCaching.

And nobody makes a buck. Is that any better?

What Hollis and co appear to have overlooked is that if you constrain the use of the information that broadband can deliver, it's value to the consumer declines significantly... thus the value, the benefit of broadband is squandered.

If the retitled Bill does nothing but increase content proprietors ability to gouge (pay per view etc etc) the price may remain too high in the opinion of the majority of consumers.

The other issue is no-one appears to be asking the consumer if they are prepared to pay the higher costs for the secure devices so they can have their rights limited *and* pay for costly broadband.

Myself, http://bookcrossing.com seems the way to go.