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Free Books: Under the Radar

bcrowell writes "Remember e-books, anti-books, and print-on-demand books? They didn't pan out. The surprise success story is free books." Of course, this defines "success" as number of readers, not in terms of monetary profits. E-books and their ilk were concentrating on the latter definition, rather than the former. Still, it's good to see free books preferred in some circles based on their merit, and not just the cost.

7 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. business model by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    1. free books
    2. ?
    3. PROFIT!!!

    1. Re:business model by Servants · · Score: 4, Funny

      When paperbacks started costing > 9 dollars, I stopped buying them. It hurt to decrease my favorite entertainment, but with my scifi/fantasy appetite of 2-4 paperbacks a weekend, I just couldn't afford it.

      Dude... haven't you got a library? The original source of free books...

  2. Stephen Hawking by D4Vr4nt · · Score: 1, Funny

    A Brief History of Time might have to be revised yet again..

    No free books. :P

    --
    R4NT.com - A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
  3. Definition of "book" by ohboy-sleep · · Score: 3, Funny

    When they say they're free books, do they mean novel-length stories with real plots, or do they mean things like Seven-of-Nine/Highlander crossover fan-fiction?

  4. Re:In the beginning... by SquadBoy · · Score: 3, Funny

    I *really* liked the bit about drills.

    --

    Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
  5. Free as in irony by Mr.Coffee · · Score: 2, Funny

    did is strike anyone else as ironic that one of the mentioned websites, theassayer.org, which said it had more than 350 free books on it's site, is not accessable by public?

    --
    Cogito Eggo Sum, I think therefore I'm a waffle
  6. Flaws of society by ViZA · · Score: 2, Funny

    It is times like these that I rejoice to the sounds of failure. Corporations and your typical money making "joe" make it hard these days to separate superficial monkey bait from superb works of literary merit. Much like this man.