Free holiday reading?

Downloading now - thanks, this is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping for!

Have to say I wasn't too impressed with "Yes, Jolonah". Its protagonist's predicament, while undoubtedly horrible on a conceptual level, didn't evoke much in the way of emotional horror -- the presentation was too melodramatic, the premise too fundamentally silly, and the characters too flat. The tvtropes word for this sort of thing is "narm", I believe.

On the other hand, I've always liked "Prime Intellect", despite its faults and despite the Luddism it feels compelled to devolve into.

The raikoth.net story is awesome. "Yes, Jolonah" is not worth reading.

Edited ages and ages later: "Yes, Jolonah" is a frightening story that caused me distress due to empathizing with the characters. If you aren't prone to that or if you enjoy it, go ahead and read it. It is moving and well-written.

If you value your time at $20/hr, then unless you decide that you would read a book for the amount of time it takes -- but not an hour longer -- then most books are worth buying.