Michael Hall, a supersmart lawyer on the book's legal team, told me
in July last year he saw a young man in Sydney reading a copy of
`Underground' beside him on the #380 bus to North Bondi. Michael
said he wanted to lean over and proclaim proudly, `I legalled that
book!'. Instead, he chose to watch the young man's reactions.
The young man was completely absorbed, reading hungrily through his
well-worn copy, which he had completely personalised. The pages were
covered in highlighter, scrawled margin writing and post-it notes. He
had underlined sections and dog-eared pages. If the bus had detoured to
Brisbane, he probably wouldn't have noticed.
I like that. Call me subversive, but I'm chuffed `Underground' is
engaging enough to make people miss bus stops. It makes me happy, and
happy people usually want to share.
There are other reasons for releasing `Underground' in this format. The
electronic version is being donated to the visionary Project Gutenburg,
a collection of free electronic books run with missionary zeal by
Michael Hart.
Project Gutenburg promises to keep old out-of-print books in free
``electronic'' print forever, to bring literature to those who can't
afford books, and to brighten the world of the visually
impaired.
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