in a rut

So, I don't know if you've noticed, but Booksmith has this enormous box of free books at the top of the stairs to the Used Book Cellar. The book is called Rut and it's published by the Concord Free Press.

The concept behind the Concord Free Press is that -- surprise! -- all of its books are free. You can request a book from their website (or come into the Booksmith and pick one up), and they'll ship it to you for free. In exchange for the free book, you're supposed to give money to a charity or a person in need, and then pass the book along so that someone else can do the same. You then record your donation on http://www.concordfreepress.com/ so that the company can keep track of it. They bill themselves as "a new kind of publishing," and their motto is "Free their books so their minds will know."

I am never one to pass up a free book, so I've taken my copy of Rut and am now about 30 pages in. It's pretty good, actually, and to fulfill my end of the deal I gave $5 to a man named Joseph who was sitting outside the Kenmore T stop the other night, wrapped in a big sheet of carpet padding. Then I told Concord Free Press about it, and now I'm telling you.

I really love this new idea of publishing, and while I know it won't replace the traditional method (or the new method of e-publishing), it's actually pretty neat. We've still got a big box of copies of Rut, so come in, pick yours up, and feel like a radical.

UPDATE: The box has mysteriously disappeared!! I am currently looking into why this should be. Check back soon. :)