(warning: shameless self plaigarism, I’m borrowing this book report from elsewhere… )

The Anarchist in the Library How the Clash Between Freedom and Control Is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System
Siva Vaidhyanathan

A great survey of just what the subtitle says, “how the clash between freedom and control is hacking the real world and crashing the system.”
Earnest-as-fuck academic look at freedom on the innernets. Wish it had been written when I was in school, it would be a great reader in current topics from a left-liberal “information wants to be free” perspective. He reviews a number of different recent tech fights from the perspective of anarchy vs. oligarchy.

Criticisms would be:
- too close a focus on specific and current events means this book won’t age well – things are moving too fast for a book on issues like filesharing and DRM (hint: read his blog instead)
- I’d appreciate a bit more theory and a bit fewer specifics about this or that court battle.
- no charts? why no charts? Needs charts.
- for a book about anarchists and libraries, I was expecting a bit more sex.

Favourite part:

when my librarian gave the cover a double take and asked about it.

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