At some point in 2023, I was prompted to buy more physical media because of an alteration to Big K.R.I.T.'s 4eva Is A Mighty Long Time album. I own the vinyl, I enjoy the vinyl. One afternoon, I went to YouTube Music, and one of the songs was completely different. Not like a lyric changed, it was a completely different beat and verse. His change was for creative reasons, but I didn't like the change, no matter how much the new portion jammed. I immediately found myself in CD Warehouse in Arlington. The urge to have physical media grew my book collection pretty quickly. I spent another 2 years looking at a full bookshelf. Social media is getting on my damn nerves, pushing me towards that shelf. I started with bell hooks and grew as a man, but then realized I needed books as an escape and found myself drawn to sci-fi reads. I need things far away from race, except for Sky Full of Elephants. That book is amazing and thought-provoking.

Right as I've hit a good reading stride, LLM companies have been acquiring, scanning, and destroying books. Immediately after this news broke, Pretty Little Liars was edited to now include a mention of TikTok, even though the book was written in 2006, ten years before TikTok even existed.

So, physical copies to avoid the changes.

I'll be buying survival books, banned books, and history reads. The acceleration towards an orgy of the worlds of 1984, Animal Farm, and Fareigheit 451 means we should probably all acquire as much as we can before it's no longer available or illegal to buy. Seems impossible, but we are watching it happen.

BUY THE PHYSICAL MEDIA AND THEN READ IT!

Ramble over: here are my most recent reads.