Week 2: Steal this book

So, I read the "Fight" Section this weekend. It's pretty sweet, it's got information on everything from underground newspapers to what to do if the police get rowdy during a protest (there's a lot on protest, remember it was written during the vietnam war)..It's also got information on less... legal subjects, but I'm not going to talk about that. Although it's not like you can't find information on molotov cocktails in a couple dozen places on the internet. Anyway, it talks about stuff like what's the best head protection to wear at a protest (motorcycle helmets with the face sheild taken out so there's room for a gas mask) and it has a cool table on the different chemicals police use in riot control. It then goes on to how to get good legal aid if you DO get taken in by police during a protest and similar things. But enough about protests. My favorite part of this one was actually about organizing with other... sort of the same people who would be using the book. Dunno what to really call them. The book generally refers to Yippies, but you don't need to be part of the Youth International Party to benefit from the book. I also skimmed through the next section which is "Liberate!" and I have to say there's not much to review there... It's just got 4 sections each on a specific city (New York, Chicago, LA, San Francisco) and information which is most likely out of date about it, such as places where you can get free stuff or cheap entertainment or such. I suppose that "Steal this Wiki" probably has more up to date information, but if I remember correctly when I last looked at it there wasn't really anything useful about seattle, which is where I would want information from. So next week I'll probably be talking about Neuromancer.

Week 1: Steal This Book & Catcher in the Rye

Well, I started out reading Catcher in the Rye because I hadn't gotten a copy of Steal This Book yet, and I have to say: it was REALLY boring. I read about a fifth of it and couldn't work up ANY interest. Thankfully, on tuesday I got my hands on Steal This Book (no, I didn't steal it). That night I pretty much read the entire "Survive" section. The "Survive" section is pretty much all about free stuff. Free food, free housing, free clothing, free furniture. No, it's not all stealling, only about HALF of it is stealing. It also lists statistic like how 40% of merchandise gets stolen in most large stores, which means they must REALLY overprice stuff if they still make a profit. But there's a rather lengthy part of the Free Food chapter that's talking about eating unfinished meals in restaraunts. Thats not illegal, the restaraunt just doesn't want you to because then you won't buy anything. I think I'm probably going to go a bit slower as far as the "Fight" and "Liberate" sections go.