Cory Doctorow’s new book Makers has been serialized over on Tor’s website for a few months now. I thought I’d let it get a little ahead of me in the event that I really liked it. Turns out I do. I find myself re-reading sentences over and over again, after my mind has been distracted by the idea or the potential ideas that Cory explores.

One of my favorite concepts thus far is that the death of something like a company (or for that matter an economy), is not the end of innovation. On the contrary. During times of economic struggle it becomes critical for the big brains of our world to find smarter, leaner ways of doing things. To find ways to trim the fat.

Which is something that I think Cory has continuously done with his novels. Releasing his books via a Creative Commons license has allowed him to experiment and push boundaries in ways others may have shied away from due to fears of economic failure. Cory’s desire to share content that he created at no cost to his audience has created a loyal fanbase that gladly support his creative endeavors with purchases of physical books but also with word of mouth, blogs, fansites, songs, remixes of the work and any other medium that fans want to show their appreciation.

I should mention that I’ve been reading Makers in a somewhat non-traditional way. While the text has been available via Tor’s site accompanied by some amazing illustration by Idiots’Books, I’ve been reading the book on my iPhone using one of favorite apps; the truly amazing Instapaper. Instapaper strips the text from a webpage and allows you to read it offline on the iPhone. It’s an amazing app and you should really be using it.

To be clear: I’m reading a novel, released under a Creative Commons license, distributed via a publishers website that is trickling out chapters three times a week, I am taking those chapters and reading them on a smart phone; whenever I want.

These a fantastic and amazing times that we live in.