It’s the season of goodwill, so it seems a perfect time to say thank you to everyone that’s visited my blog, followed or message me on social networks, or kindly referred me to potential new clients. Plus everyone that’s helped me set-up sites, answered my own questions, and anyone that’s come along to the #DPiP meetups or chatted at conferences etc.
And as times are financially tight for most people, and the cold weather for a lot of us is conducive to staying inside in the warm, I’ve put together a list of some books which I recommend, and are freely available for download (usually under a Creative Commons licence) – mainly because as much as I’d like to offer something I haven’t managed to come up with my own book as yet…
Obviously if you download them and enjoy them or get value from them, I’d encourage you to thank the author by buying a copy for a friend, maybe buying a copy to share in your business, or buying a copy for your local library, for example.
Note: Some of the links are to descriptions, others are directly to PDF downloads. And please check before assuming that any of the works are Creative Commons licenced.
- ‘Insider’s Guide to Mobile: Free Edition’ by Tomi Ahonen.
- ‘Content’ by Cory Doctorow.
- ‘We The Media’ by Dan Gillmor.
- ‘Code Version 2.0’ by Lawrence Lessig.
- ‘Free Culture’ by Lawrence Lessig.
- ‘My Tiny Life’ by Julien Dibbell.
- ‘Virtual Justice’ by Greg Lastowka.
- ‘The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier’ by Bruce Sterling.
And if you want to compare notes over Christmas, I’m just starting:
- ‘The Art of Community’ by Jono Bacon
- ‘Free Software, Free Society: Collected Essays of Richard Stallman 2nd Edition’.
So get downloading, have a read, and maybe you’ll be inspired to help the author and your friends/colleagues/local neighbourhood. As an inspiration bonus, I’d also recommend checking out Cory Doctorow’s fictional novels – particularly ‘Makers‘, ‘Little Brother‘, ‘For The Win‘, and ‘Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom‘
And if you’ve got recommendations you can share, or want to share your thoughts on any of the books listed, comments are much appreciated!