Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
The main issue is perceived value. Books are not T-shirts as significant time would have to be spent on reading them. Say I had 40 people in the audience and 40 books. Then it would have been like passing around marketing samples of no perceived value.
Right. If you passed them out to all comers, they'd share the fate of all such premiums. A third would be left on the floor, a third in the trash bins on the way out, a third taken home and forgotten about, and none read.
