free son rivers!

someone on twitter wished this on me today: “may you fill many books with this, but sell none.” i found such a mixture of charm and curse to be quite startling.

it appears my words aren’t appreciated by this one, which is understandable; they often aren’t appreciated here hours after they’ve been written. but there appears to be an undercurrent of distaste at my having a couple of books for sale on this website.

so i wish to be utterly transparent here, both to others and myself, but ultimately, one. every son rivers book for sale here is for the enjoyment of the book form itself. all the words are free in another form elsewhere. furthermore, i assure you, the profit from any book here is minimal.

really, the fact that there are any book forms here has more to do with my two and a half years of unemployment and the resultant free time than anything else. there are no illusions that any of this can be profitable, nor should there be. even if the sun sets on my ability to stay afloat, i would never (and could never) use this work as a boat on which to float. but it is fun!

yet maybe i have not been as explicit about this as i should have been. so here are the projects i’ve undertaken and their various manifestations.

Nisargadatta_M
this has been my latest joy. i have been reading ‘I Am That” and tweeting selected portions, chapter by chapter at:
http://twitter.com/Nisargadatta_M
I also have been compiling the tweets at:
http://nisargadattam.blogspot.com/
Lately, I’ve begun to post the tweets, 2 a day, at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nisargadatta_M/116197611786801
There is no book form, although I’ve been toying with the idea of creating a free pdf version when complete, which it will be on Monday.

Tao Te Tweet
this was a project from my @sonrivers 2009 timeline, that I have been recycling at:
http://twitter.com/TaoTeTweet
and have collected in blog form at:
http://taotetweet.blogspot.com/
I’ve also created a Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tao-Te-Tweet-Post/131865806876643
where I’ve been posting one a week.
It is also available in book form at:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/tao-te-tweet/6321655
for $7.99, of which $1.13 is my share. The download was $4.00, of which, $2.01 was my share, but I’ve rethought that because of this incident, and have made the download free.

Awakurious
Much of this is a collection of tweets from @sonrivers circa 2009, which are available in blog form at:
http://awakurious.blogspot.com/
They are also available in an edited book form at:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/awakurious/6525606
for $9.95, of which $0.81 is my share. The download was $5.00, of which, $3.21 was my share (outrageous, i know), but again, I’ve rethought that because of this incident, and have made the download free.

The Blog of Henry David Thoreau
Back in 2004/2005, I read the Journals of Henry David Thoreau on a daily basis, all the entries for that particular day through the years Thoreau had written, and posted a selection (under my non-nom-de-plume of Greg Perry) which resonated with me at:
http://blogthoreau.blogspot.com/
I then created a book from which sells at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0557039541
and Lulu:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-blog-of-henry-david-thoreau/4191655
Because it sells at Amazon ($18.95!!!), the profit structure is a bit different than the ones above.
When sold at Amazon, the profit is $1.39, but when sold at Lulu, the profit is $6.57.
Because of that ridiculous price, I had created a second edition as a smaller paperback which sells only at Lulu:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-blog-of-henry-david-thoreau-%282nd-ed%29/11037789
for $6.99, of which $1.24 is my share.
There is another epub version available at:
http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/ithoreau/6119999
which sells for $2.99, of which, $1.20 is my share.

Son Rivers Dawning
This is a hodgepodge of early writings, again as Greg Perry, and also available at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Son-Rivers-Dawning-dreaming-ultimate/dp/0557047552
and Lulu:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/son-rivers-dawning-waking-words-and-dreaming-cantos-the-ultimate-reality-series/4415107
Sells at Amazon for $19.95 (needless to say, it never sold a copy there), of which my share is $1.60; and the share at Lulu is $10.98. The download is available for $9.00, and I’m keeping that one there. These are Greg’s writings; not mine. ;-)

An Other Road Into the Heartland
This is a collection of haibun written after a trip to Japan. A work of love.
Available for $15.95 at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Other-Road-Into-Heartland-Buddha/dp/0557044804
and Lulu:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/an-other-road-into-the-heartland-after-basho-buddha-and-japan/4312765
Amazon revenue $2.82 and Lulu $6.79. Download at $9.00 ($7.20). Again, these are Greg’s writings, so they remain as is.

But most of the last two are available somewhere at my first blog:
http://grapez.blogspot.com/
and
http://anotherroadintotheheartland.blogspot.com/
although all but one post has been removed from Heartland, because the book went through several revisions, and the blog posts no longer represent the heart of the book.

That’s it, I think. Many books have been filled; only a few have been sold. So that curse really does not have much work to do.

In the name of love,
Son Rivers