Where do y'all get your books? What ya reading right now?
I stopped using Amazon a while back, but it was where I got all my books for a long time. I do thriftbooks mostly now, and try to buy directly from publishers when it’s a newer book, but I’m always interested in finding new spots to cop some sweet books.
I mostly just pirate from library genesis and sideload onto my Kindle. Had I known how easy it was to get books as a poor, I'd have opted for a Kobo instead since it's easier to move the .epubs over. You need to use Amazon's janky uploader thing to sideload and it's kind of butts.
What’s a kobo? I haven’t heard of that ereader. Do they have an e-ink version? I still prefer paper to digital, but e-ink is pretty nice, it’s the only way I’ve been able to do digital books in the past.
I buy mostly revolutionary stuff, so i like to support the authors as much as i can, though, so I’d still probably buy the ebooks since I have the privilege of having a bit of money each month to spend of frivolities.
FYI Kobo is the North American brand name for Rakuten made eReaders. In Europe they're sold as Tolino, with a slightly different OS/GUI as well.
I get ebooks from Anna’s archive. I got a bunch of books from LeftWingBooks a few months ago (thanks to a discount from revleft). I’ve also bought some from verso.
Great call on Anna’s archive, I just snagged quite a few ebooks I’ve been meaning to pick up physical copies of but haven’t bought yet.
Ooh I haven’t bought fin LeftWingBooks before, I’ll have to check out their catalogue, thanks! I also hadn’t heard of Anna’s archive, looks legit.
Local library, archive.org, independent book stores, and bookshop.org
Audiobooks from library, libro.fm, deDRMed from my old audible library, and piracy
ProleWiki has a lot of books in its library. You can check MIA or Marx2Mao for older theory and Iskra Books for more recent ones.
the whole series is great
2nd and Charles if you have one near you. Also Book Exchange. But those are very location specific.
I love second and Charles. Lots of decent books for a good price, plus I get to gawk at their overpriced retro games and occasionally walk away with a genuinely good deal, like when I got halo 2 for $5 to replace my long since lost steelbook from my childhood. Mines pretty far though, so I rarely go.
I used to exclusively go to local bookstores but now bookstores around me are nonexistent or total shit. So I actually started using Amazon for buying books, unfortunately.
I try to use archive as much as possible to download PDFs but I need physical copies.
Yeah I feel you on physical copies. I like to scribble notes in the margins so pdfs are especially frustrating to read, makes it harder to annotate.
I feel you. Annotating in PDFs is just not the same. I don't do it generally but I will when I'm really trying to study and learn something, PDFs are not good for that.
I just prefer books generally. There is a certain attunement to reading that happens when holding and looking at a physical book. I can focus better and I can actually read faster with more comprehension and better retainment of information. While reading PDFs my mind wanders more and I want to quickly switch apps to see what's new on Hexbear, or what someone just texted me, and so on. If I were reading a physical book, my phone would be silenced and facedown so it's less of a distraction and I better grasp and interiorize what I read. And I just like to collect books, I have a small-to-medium sized personal library and I have a bunch of out of print, difficult to find books which were never digitized. I like to maintain a physical collection of these types of things, like films, as much as possible because one day they may not be possible to find. There is so much wisdom and experience and knowledge in our books and I think we will lose access to many of them sometime soon just because they aren't profitable to publish and distribute.
Mix of libgen and local bookstores, including my town’s anarchist bookstore!
I’m juggling “If We Burn” by Jason Bevins, “Postcapitalist Desire” by Mark Fisher, and “Double Shift” by Jason Read. I’m not familiar with Jason Read but the description of the book had me intrigued
local bookstores almost exclusively, and libgen if it cant be found there.
zlibrary
Is the title a play on Doors of Perception? I really like that cover.
The protagonist hops through a multiverse when falling asleep so seems like Doors of Perception might've been the inspiration for the idea. It's a very fun light sci-fi read.
I use local libraries and bookstores mostly. When I'm reading comics/manga/big publisher fantasy I tend to pirate until I know that I like the series to justify the purchase. For theory I use a mix of the usual Marxists.org alongside my uni library, libgen, and Iskra's pdf versions of their books. I also read a lot of visual novels, usually pirated until I know I like them.
I'm currently rereading two things: The Hobbit as a bit of a comfort read, and Sekien no Inganock since I never got around to finishing it and I found its steampunk mutants setting cool. Unfortunately I forgot that its first chapter's villain is a transphobic stereotype, so I haven't continued it for the past few days. Although I'll probably push through anyways cuz the vibes are so good.
For theory I'm taking a bit of a break now that my exam season is done before I restart reading theory again.
I check with my state library before going to libgen. I got bevins if we burn from the library recently
well...physically i do thriftbooks too, but usually i prefer to read a pdf from wayback machine, or an open directory
I used to go to a couple local shops when I lived in the city, but we don't have great book options where I live right now.
I tend to prefer reading in English rather than my local language, so I mostly get books digitally and read them on my tablet. I only very rarely read fiction, but I am reading through Dark Forest again right now as a rare treat. Just before Dark Forest I read Three Body Problem, obviously, and Finkelstein's "Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom".
Yeah most of our remaining book stores also aren’t great. There’s one used book store in my town and it’s run by hardcore Christian old ladies, so they keep anything cool to read out of there haha.
Three Body is a great series, I picked up the trilogy in Mandarin when I was in China, but my mandarin isn’t good enough to read it yet, so it’s mostly a stretch goal for me. I read it in English originally. I’ve listened to so much of Finkelstein, but yet to read any of his books. I might see if my Libby has any available, I bet they’re great if his speeches and interviews are anything to go by.
Yeah I would try to read it in Mandarin but I am pretty sure the technical language is beyond me, at least as of right now. Would love to work into it eventually though.
re: Finkelstein, I think his writing is arguably better than his speeches, you can tell he has devoted his life to that subject. They can be lengthy but honestly they never feel like it.
I usually buy from bookstores when I go to the mall, but shit's expensive and I haven't gone in a while, so I'm mostly just sailing the high seas for now.
Right now I'm reading Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, still on the very beginning of the book, and I also started rereading Marx: An Introduction by Jorge Grespan, it's very short and only available in portuguese I think, but helped me grasp some concepts I struggled a bit before.
I love your username. I have the antlers and star as my only tattoo haha.
Carmilla is that vamp novel that predates Dracula, right? Hope it’s a good read, I’ve wanted to read it for a while but always forget it exists until something reminds me.
That's awesome, I wanted to get a tattoo of the antlers too, but haven't been able to yet, hopefully sometime in the future I get it.
Carmilla is that vamp novel that predates Dracula, right? Hope it’s a good read, I’ve wanted to read it for a while but always forget it exists until something reminds me.
Yes that's the one. I'm only a few chapters in and besides one racist passage it's been pretty good so far. It's much more sapphic than I expected lol. Also the book is very short, I'm just slow to read at the moment.