If you’re having a stroll along the South Bank tonight, be on the lookout for friendly hawkers trying to push books into your hands. We’re told that Canongate Books will be handing out 1,000 free copies – that’s free, folks – of Lewis Hyde’s 1983 classic, The Gift, along the South Bank at 6.00pm this evening.

If you’re not familiar with the book, expect some heavy but worthwhile questions about the role of creativity and art in a market-driven society. From the Introduction:

[A] work of art is a gift, not a commodity.... [W]orks of art exist simultaneously in two "economics," a market economy and a gift economy. Only one of these is essential, however: a work of art can survive without the market, but where there is no gift there is no art.

Endorsed, in turn, by such heavy hitters as Zadie Smith, Jonathan Lethem, Margaret Atwood, and David Foster Wallace, The Gift holds the promise of a provocative read. And at a time of year which raises plenty of other questions about the nature of commodities and gift-giving (no, we’re not being Grinchy – just repeating a point that gets raised every year), we can’t help but like Canongate’s un-Grinchy show of Gift-giving generosity.

Grab a free copy if you can, Londonist readers!

Image courtesy of Imago’s Flickr photostream