News

Letter from a young reader about Little Brother

A young man named Alex came out to my Decatur, GA Homeland tour-stop and we had a charming (if brief) conversation, and subsequently snapped this quite wonderful photo. One of Alex's teachers subsequently wrote to me to say that Alex had taken high academic honors in a Letters About Literature contest about Little Brother, and he was kind enough to allow me to reproduce both the photo and the letter here.

Thanks, Alex!

Dear Cory Doctorow,

Little Brother is one of those drastically important books that deals with real issues affecting everyone. This book was, in my opinion, more than just a book; it was a persuasive, life-changing book, the kind of gem that comes around too infrequently.

Before I read Little Brother I was scared to try something different. I surrounded myself with the same old young-adult novels (you know- goes on a quest, learns many things, big fight with a troll, the end) and never dared to step out of my little box.

One day during the sixth grade I saw a kid with too many teeth sitting in a dusty corner, reading Little Brother, and asked him what it was about. He shrugged and muttered something incoherent about Harajuku Fun Madness. When I arrived at home I looked up the book on the internet. Before long I discovered your website, and became intrigued by the fact that you were just giving away your e-books.

The book shipped in two days.

I am always thinking. Constantly tossing up an idea, usually shooting it down, tossing up another one, sometimes it flies, I wait for it to crash, then I walk over to it and shoot it another three or four times for good measure. The few months before I read Little Brother this had dumbed down a bit. I could feel it, like I was wearing earplugs, and only low, muffled, blurry ideas wandered through occasionally to stop and say hi before continuing on their way.

After (and during) the reading of Little Brother the haze had lifted and was replaced by an energetic excitement that jumpstarted my brain to life. My neurons hummed like lawnmowers. A refreshing feeling of urgency and eagerness surged through me-- a feeling I’d not experienced since being eight years old on Christmas. And I started thinking again.

I put my flawless (yeah, right) guess-and-test technique to work, meticulously weeding through all the information to make sense of things. I realized just how possible the police-state situation could be- after 9/11 security everywhere was increased and tightened. The scanners updated. The rules stricter. The pat-downs more, ahem, thorough. What if this happened, but on a much larger scale?

Also, I’m a bit more paranoid. I know about those looming possibilities, terrifying ones- that technology could be used against me, that my freedom is more fragile than I thought. Already I’ve begun questioning the things presented to me as fact. I look at something and decide for myself if it’s the opinion I want to have.

My favorite part about Little Brother is how, in some way or another, it opened me up to so many other books and authors- Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Jack Kerouac, George Orwell, the list could go on and on.

Little Brother was and still remains the most important book I’ve ever read. If I had not read your book I would be awfully different, and probably much more ignorant and stubborn. Because of your book I started writing. I read more. I think more. You have written a book that is not only good, but life-changing as well. Thanks.

Sincerely,

Alex

WH Smith automatically adding DRM to DRM-free ebooks, but there’s an interim solution while they fix it

The UK Bookseller WH Smith has been experiencing some kind of bug in its ebook store, whereby it adds DRM to all of the Kobo ebooks it sells, even the ones that are supposed to be DRM-free (like mine). Apparently, this is a metadata-parsing issue. I spoke to my agent and publisher, and WH Smith/Kobo came up with a good workaround while they fix the bug:

Kobo/WH Smith have come up with a solution that enables your
e-books to still be on sale. The DRM wording has been manually
removed from the WH Smith site and when readers click to purchase
the book it forwards them to the Kobo site where it clearly states
the e-books are DRM-free until WH Smiths is able to update their
website which will be at the end of April.

Little Brother [eBook]

WSJ on Homeland

Here's a nice surprise: a glowing review of my new novel Homeland in the WSJ.

"Homeland" is as dead serious as "1984," as potentially important a "novel of ideas," with a much more engaging central character and an apparently inexhaustible supply of information on everything from brewing coffee to sneaky surveillance and how to defeat it.

Mr. Doctorow is bang up-to-date (as Orwell never was) on the uses of rapidly changing technology, both good and bad. If you want to keep up, there's a four-page appendix on how to protect your privacy and use the Net productively—so long as you're allowed, that is.

Coming to Oxford, MS this afternoon

Hey, Oxford, MS! I'm coming to town today, and signing at Square Books at 5PM on the tour for my new book Homeland. I'll be in Memphis tomorrow, and then I go to New Orleans on Tuesday. Though I can hardly believe it, the tour is only halfway along, and there's tons more stops to come.

Video from yesterday’s event at Flyleaf books in Chapel Hill, NC

Calvin Powers of the SplatSpace makerspace posted a video of yesterday's presentation at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC. Thanks, Calvin!

Coming to Decatur today!

Hey, Decatur! I'm coming to town today on the tour for my new novel, Homeland; I'll be at the Decatur Library at 7PM. Then, on Monday I'll be in Oxford, MS, followed by Memphis on Tuesday. There's many more cities to go!

Video from my book tour: Cincinnati presentation

Kevin Loughin came out to my Homeland tour-stop in Cincinnati on Valentine's Day and made a great video of the presentation and Q&A. He was kind enough to post it to YouTube -- thanks, Kevin!

Cory Doctorow talk on Homeland.

Coming to Miami tonight!

Hey, Miami! I'm about to head to the airport for my appearance tonight at Books & Books. Tomorrow I'll be in Chapel Hill at Flyleaf Books, and on Sunday I'll be in Decatur at the Decatur Library (sponsored by Little Shop of Stories). There's still plenty more cities to go, too!

EFF-Austin benefit after My Book People event on Feb 22

After my event at Austin's Book People on Feb 22, I'll be doing a benefit for EFF-Austin on their location privacy campaign. We did this the last time I came through town and it was tremendous -- come on out!

An evening with Cory Doctorow and EFF-Austin

Coming to Cincinnati today!

As I write this, I'm on my way to the airport, headed for Cincinnati, where I'll be doing an appearance tonight at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on the tour for Homeland, which hit the New York Times bestseller list last night. Tomorrow, I'll be in Miami and then I'll be in Chapel Hill. There's still lots more cities on the tour!

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