Bored and cranky, Shannon MacDonald was riding the Metro one morning four years ago, headed to her job as a paralegal at Akin Gump.

She was tired of crosswords and Sudokus. She'd never been much of a newspaper person. She was a "book nut" -- but due to recent poor choices at the library, she didn't have anything good to read.

Cue the light bulb: Wouldn't it be great if you could pick up free commuter-length book excerpts at Metro ... more >>