Nerd Notes: Reading in a Time of Recession

Here's an interesting look at a few trends in reading in a time of recession.

So what are folks reading?  A glance at the Amazon top sellers says that Ayn Rand's gigantic Atlas Shrugged is enjoying a huge renaissance, along with more and more unhappy taxpayers calling on the name of John Galt.

At least you don't necessarily have to spend a lot of money to read some good books.  Aside from your local public library, may I suggest . . . 

~Free literature sent to you everyday by email or RSS feed?  Check out DailyLit.Com.  It'll give "text message" a whole new meaning when instead of getting things like "whazzup what r u doin 2day l8r lol" you get a chapter of Tolstoy.

~Harvard Classics has a large-ish collection of free books online.  Selections range from Pascal to Poe and beyond.

~Here's my latest discovery: BookMooch.Com.  Basically it's what La Parisienne, Alessandra, and I have been doing for a long time already -- just on a much larger scale.  All you end up paying really is postage, and thank goodness for the super-cheap "media mail" rate you get at the post office for sending books/DVDs/CDs.  (Hmmm, all this talk actually reminds me that I need to send Alessandra that copy of Watchmen that La Parisienne sent me...)

Read on, penny-pinching literati!