Free as in Books?

donkeyDevil writes "Forget free software, contribute to free books! The Chronicle has an interesting story about bookcrossing.com's effort to track feral books through their captors. Read about it, then do it. (Although the focus of the story is on Bay Arean book releasors, it looks like you'd have a better chance of snagging a free book here.)"

Comments

Re:"Track Feral books through their captors"

[gilroy]

Blockquoth the poster:

Why not try introducing literature to the KIDS AT SCHOOL instead?

Yes, because the absolute best message we can present to kids is "Reading is only meaningful when digested in a suitable, prepackaged form", followed by "Literature has no room for spontaneity" and of course the all-time favorite, "There's no way that reading could be fun, something you do on your own time."

Yessiree, that's sure to spike the interest of kids in reading...

Of course, the sane answer is, Why can't we do both? Teach literature in school and make it available to everyone?

Re:"Track Feral books through their captors"

[gilroy]

Blockquoth the poster:

Why is this any different?

Because it's voluntary.

Because it's non-intrusive.

Because it's opt-in.

Because it's not done by the government.

Because it's not done by a corporation whose only god is the bottom line.

Because it's non-exhaustive: you can ignore the books, pick one up and read it without tracking it, etc.

The threats to human freedom are real and urgent. But they're not omnipresent... sometimes, data can be a good thing. And I'd much rather see volunteer-driven, indivudal-centric projects like this than a mandated, national, bureaucratic effort like a national ID.