Zero to One

Zero to One is an idea I just got today, after realizing how many books there are out there that cost nothing to purchase. What got me thinking was the fact that yesterday (that's February 4, 2014 - a historical date!) I found a copy of Zola's The Game is Over (English translation of La Curée: also translated as The Kill). It was there, on the sidewalk, thrown away or lost or stolen and dumped - who knows? This was the first time ever that I found a book like this. I mean, libraries giving away their out-of-stock, book fares where they gift their un-purchased - yes, I was familiar with these things. But such serendipitous encounter with a book lying on the ground like an abandoned child - that, indeed, had never happened to me.

Then today, walking into a university library for no particular reason, I saw two bookshelves full of unwanted prints, mostly books on engineering, business, computer science, and all the stuff that normally doesn't get my attention. But I've taught myself to look at books with patience. I did it again today, and found a beautiful book. It's called Time Square Roulette, and it seems to be about the history and the remaking of that New York icon. The book was published in 2001 and it's in excellent condition. And like I said, it's beautiful.

So.

After these two serendipities, and because I've been quite attuned to strange coincidences happening to me lately, I thought I might start a new blog. What I want this to be is a place where I can review found books, gifted books, donated books, discounted books, in other words, books acquired through minimal financial effort.

Zero to One sprang to mind as a perfect title.

Zero to One because on this blog I want to post short notes, reviews, thoughts, jokes, talks, disparate words about books that costed me anything in the range of 0 to $1.00.

There will be e-books as well as printed books, short stories collected from e-book vendors, novellas, poetry collections, plays. Whatever comes my way, whatever the universe decides to put in front of me.

More than anything else, I want to keep track of books I come across and from which I gain a lot while investing ridiculously small amounts of money.

We'll see how it works. I am thinking of starting (one of these days) with the Time Square Roulette, which already looks too appealing to be left alone among my other books.

(To be continued)