I’m done reading Storm World (review here), so now you can have it. I want to get a mobile lending library going. If the experiment works, we’ll do it with some of the other books on our shelf as well.
Here’s the idea:
- If you want to read the book, be the first one to leave a comment below. Be sure to include your email address in the email field so that we know how to get in touch.
- We’ll mail you the book.
- You can keep it for month. Whenever you’re done (or when your time’s up), we’ll put out another call for readers.
- You mail it on to the next person. Media mail is cheap — two or three bucks max.
- You are encouraged to leave a blog comment with one interesting or surprising thing you learned from the book.
We’ll see how long we can keep this going before the book is lost, stolen, or destroyed.
And to those who are itching to tell us that this is a carbon-unfriendly scheme: no it’s not. If you were to buy the book at the bookstore, it would still have traveled there somehow. Home delivery by mail is actually a reasonably carbon efficient way to get stuff around, because it eliminates the last-mile carbon emissions that occur when you drive yourself to the store.
However, in the spirit of the idea, we do encourage you to walk or bike to the post office when you send the book off.
And for those interested in this topic, be sure to check out Chris Mooney’s blog.
That’s a very cool idea! It must have been a good book to keep you up this late
Sounds good – I’m game!
wanna read 2
I am on board too!
Sounds like a fantastic idea to me. Hope I get to borrow it for a momth !
Great idea! (Please don’t lose the book by the 6th round…
Ditto – Looking forward to my turn
Yes, excellent idea. This is how all books should be attained. Can’t wait to get to read this.
Would love to read it! Maybe, if we all use care with the book, we can donate it to a local library when we are finished.
Definately want to read this one! Can’t wait!
check out paperbackswap.com for similar free book swapping
great idea
another book worth cycling around is Solartopia by Harvey Wasserman
I love the idea of sharing. Bookcrossing.com does a similar thing, but without mailing it. You simply leave the book in a public place for the next lucky person to find, read and pass along. And comments are left online at bookcrossing.com. Very fun!
I’d love to participate!
I would be delighted to join in this sharing plan/discussion, I\’ve heard good things about the book.
Sounds like great fun! Great idea!
It\’s time to stop our whining, the current reaction of the media and seemingly the general public seems to be some kind of adolescent; “I\’ll change if you do” or “It\’s not my problem, I don\’t do that much damage anyway” must stop – NOW.
I live in Sheffield in the UK, we\’ve just suffered the worst flooding, since records began. Two people lost their lives and billions of dollars of damage have been caused. In response, we have been told insurance premiums are rising, we must move from the flood plains and it probably wont happen again in our life time. Not the most comforting of statements, especially in the light of a storm last night causing floods locally again. We\’ve had three one in sixty year climate extreme events this year!
I hope we can see fit to change and we have the strength to adapt. The time is now to save our society/civilisation?
It sounds like this book will be convincing and a motivator to be prepared and to spread the word that more and worse storms are coming.
I would love to be on the list for this book!
I would love to be on the list for this book!
Something to consider. Authors make a living by selling books. For the most part, not a huge living. If someone creates a great book do they deserve the readers support/money? Just something to think about.
Please add me to the list too!
Hope I’m not too late! Include me too!
Check out http://www.bookmooch.com
and get books in return, for nothing but the cost of postage!
It does exactly what you are suggesting – send books you don’t want to people who want them
Hi Folks,
I’m glad so many of you want to read my book. Thought I’d point out that there is also a contest to win a free copy
http://www.harcourtbooks.com/StormWorld/contest.asp
cm
Well, that makes me feel better about the giving the book away. It now appears we have the author’s implicit endorsement.
On the other hand, it makes me a lot more nervous that I butchered the science in my review…
Reusing books makes a lot of sense, even if they have to be mailed! The marginal carbon cost of sending any single book is probably pretty low compared to the carbon cost of assembling a new book (though of course walking or biking to the library is best of all, I have a hard time reading books on a schedule.) The postal service comes to my door pretty much every day whether I’m getting a book delivered or not.
I’ve been using half.com (and, less often, other websites) to buy used books for years. I would love a way to pay royalties to authors without having to buy the big virgin block of carbon that is a new book. I’m sensitive to intellectual property issues and very sympathetic to authors (though less so to publishers.) I’ve wondered for a long time whether big sites like half.com and amazon could set up a way for purchasers to voluntarily add the cost of the author’s royalty to their purchase price. Like maybe the authors set up an account at the site and a button appears on the purchase page allowing purchasers to add the royalty. I would do this every time I buy a used book, if it were possible–the carbon making up the book is being reused, but the intellectual property, the information contained in it, is new to each person who buys it and should be paid for. Anyone have ideas on this?
At least one site already exists that orchestrates this kind of book re-use:
http://bookmooch.com/
This is a great idea, put me on the list if it’s not too late.
I\’d love to read this book. Please put me on the list. This is a great idea! Thanks.
Wow this is truly a one-of-a-kind idea..especially for this kind of book
I\’m dowm for it!
Please add me if it’s not too late…often i have to save newsletters until i have time to read…which might be a while
I would love to read this book, being a librarian this reminds of what I do for a living, lending books to those who want to read them. I will recommend that my public library purchase this title.
Greetings,
It’s (I’m) late. Looks like I’m looking at getting the book about 2010. If I can get it sooner (let me know), maybe I’ll just wait. Meantime, how do I catch the next free book offer?
I’d love to read “From the Death of Environmentalism…”
How about public libraries as being more carbon efficient? And free …