Well, not paper-and-glue books–those would be too heavy and would take up too much room. But, in two fascinating extraterrestrial tales, the always forward-thinking Baen Books is giving its e-books away free to astronauts–at least, to those astronauts currently residing on the International Space Station–and, thanks to the success of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, the Red Planet just got its first library (”Well red: Nasa’s literary mission to Mars,” by Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman). Most of the material in the library (all of it housed on a silica-glass DVD) pertains to, naturally, Mars. Seems like sound readers’ advisory, but what if the Martian residents or visitors want to read about something new for a change?

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