I previously posted about The Moonchild of Yesod: A Grimoire of Occult Hyperchemistry by Karl Stone but I just noticed that the full text is available for free download in PDF format as well as due to be published in book form by The Imaginary Book. Speaking of which, the download page has an interesting manifesto of sorts talking about why they are making the book available via free download, which I quote in part:

“Yes, that’s right. This is a completely free download, in PDF form, of The Moonchild of Yesod: A Grimoire of Occult Hyperchemistry by Karl Stone, in its entirety.

Why are we doing this? Why are we “pirating” our own books? Are we insane? (Well, yes we are, but that’s beside the point!)

We live in a new world. The internet has enabled the free exchange and sharing of information in a way never before envisaged by anyone living before us. The reality is, people share books. They always have, and they always will. The internet has simply allowed this to happen on a greater scale than ever before. The big media companies can’t get to grips with this: they label it “piracy”, and claim it’s hurting their profits. They claim that every file shared is a sale lost. And, as a result, they lobby our governments to censor the internet, in an effort to protect their out-dated and almost extinct business model.

We at Imaginary don’t see it like that. We design and produce beautiful books. That’s what we love, and it’s what our customers love, too. We believe that those people who want to own a beautifully-designed, fine-bound, limited and signed collector’s edition will buy our books anyway.

But we also believe that information shouldn’t be the exclusive preserve of the wealthy and/or discerning collector. We also recognise that many people simply don’t care about owning a beautiful book to treasure: they simply want the knowledge it contains. And so, for all those people, we are offering an alternative: a radical new approach to publishing that blows the cobwebs off the dinosaur media conglomerates, and all other publishers.

This leaves us free to concentrate on what we love, and do best, designing beautiful books for the collectors amongst you, without having to worry about low-quality “pirated” editions floating around. Instead, we now control the quality of our digital files, ensuring you get a perfect copy every time.

It may be, of course, that some people who download this book will be so enamoured with it, that they rush to purchase a physical copy anyway…” [via]