Ok, so they actually didn’t, but they both did do something really cool - made something, then gave it away for free.

Neil Gaiman wrote “American Gods” in 2001. It’s an absolutely amazing book that I can’t do justice in even attempting to explain it, but I’ll try. American Gods is the story of Shadow, released early from prison when his wife was killed in a car crash. Along the way he hooks up with a mysterious fellow named Wednesday, who is more then he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an old God, once known as Odin, crossing the country gathering the support of the other old Gods in preparation for an epic battle with the Gods of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired.
In celebration of his blog’s 7th birthday, he decided to place a book online for free - which book, however, was up to us. After a week, it was quite obvious from the results that American Gods won. And recently they put it up, and here it is. Enjoy! And then go out and buy it.

And then Trent. Last year Nine Inch Nails were released from their contract, allowing them the freedom to do more. As such, they decided to follow the lead Radiohead put out there and released their newest album, Ghosts, for free. Really, sorta free. The first 9 tracks were released free of charge, along with cover art, web art and a 40 page PDF booklet. I’ve listened to the free tracks and the first thing that popped into my head when I heard it was Frank Zappa’s “Jazz From Hell“. It too was a very experimental instrumental album, that took sound to a new level - not necessarily with great success. So really, I didn’t like it - but I didn’t give it the 4-5 complete listen that I need to before I can fully appreciate something at this level. In fact, I spent the $10 for the 2-CD set, which also came with an instant download of the entire 36 track album¹. I give it the complete listen it needs, and report back later.

So there you go, a couple of free ways to expand your cultural horizon. Enjoy em!

1. In multiple formats, which is awesome - from 320kbps MP3, to FLAC lossless or Apple lossless [↩]

Through LifeHacker.com I just learned about a NetFlix for books called BookSwim. I can immediately tell you that we’ll probably be signing up, and probably for the $36/month 11 books out at a time plan, since we seem to inhale them. This ought to keep our bookcases a little thinner though, so I won’t complain to much!