Reading - DRM Free E-Reading
While we don't have any settlement at Tycho Crater we already see where everything-as-a-service is going. Digital textbooks arrived as Richard Stallman predicted far, far sooner than 2096. My daughter pays 50% of the price of a physical textbook that would arguably last a lifetime or more for a digital text that is available for one year. Please don't tell me that textbooks are only good for a year. That's completely disingenuous on so many levels. I'm rather concerned that unless we resist, resist, resist, and resist even more, we will see the end of public libraries far sooner than Stallman's fictional 2047 date. There are far too many moral outrage groups stalking the halls of government, attempting and often succeeding in tearing out any literature that shows there are alternatives to living exactly as they imagine
Maybe I'm being too reactionary or paranoid. But I really don't think so. If anything, I am being far, far too polite and civilized. I came to this conclusion after years of denial. If someone were to provide evidence illustrating I'm outside the bounds of realism, I'd consider it. However, given that every year governments all over the world, including the so-called Western democracies, ban and attempt to ban enormous numbers of books (and film, games, and any kind of media) having enormous literary merit and rewrite history books to suit narratives of patriotic fervour and idyllic continuous progress where no innocents were ever harmed, whitewashing away genocide, oppression, suppression. And when voices speak out politicians are eager to silence them.
Even that ancient bastion of conservatism, Reader's Digest, points out "parents and school boards lead the effort to erase uncomfortable interpretations of reality".
In the meantime, however, we still have options to the big world dominating monsters.
Totally Free Options
Project Gutenberg - If you don't know who Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg - or just Johannes Gutenberg - was and how his invention transformed humanity, you need to educate yourself. His invention of the moveable type printing press enabled mass production of printed matter leading to an information revolution and an explosion of social change in Europe. Project Gutenberg is an international volunteer effort to make public domain books and other works of literature available digitally for free. There are even Project Gutenberg sites dedicated to works in the public domain for different nations due to copyright laws being different.
Standard Ebooks - Another volunteer effort to distribute public domain works. Only in this case the volunteers are putting efforts into typesetting and layout of already public domain works such as those from Project Gutenberg. As they indicate on their site the difference is consistency, proofing, and quality, which creates a professional grade output that, to my eye and mind, is just more accessible and easier to read.
Commercial Options
Weightless Books - On the commercial side, the best store still selling DRM free e-books is Weightless Books. I don't believe there is a better deal on the internet that is also legal and safe. Weightless Books sells modern works of fiction and classics as individual e-books, anthologies, and bundles. They also carry the latest monthly fiction magazines, the annual best of compilations, and subscriptions to monthlies so you never miss an issue. Additionally, there is non-fiction and poetry.
Pop up stores and time limited offers are brilliant marketing strategies. They create an artificial scarcity that tweaks the animal brains we all have. I realize this. Also, in the largest, most successful case, one of these vendors is gradually moving away from DRM free offerings and providing only access to e-books via DRM controlled reading apps.
Humble Bundle - While this site still provide some of their bundled e-books in DRM free PDF, ePub, Mobi, PRC, and CBZ formats, they are increasingly partnering with Canada's bookstore monopolist Indigo via the Kobo e-reader platform. Humble Bundle has, like everyone else, been steadily increasing prices, and switched from the customer choosing the apportionment of funds for all parties to a minimum apportionment for the store. Therefore, buyer beware, so you do not wind up buying on the assumption you can move your e-books to whatever device you want to use them. When a vendor controls your access to an e-book they can, at their discretion, limit that access, such as through their app or within the bounds of certain geolocated IP address ranges or blocking access through VPNs entirely, or remove the content entirely, having taken your money and taking back what you thought you purchased. HB partners with very big name IP holders and it has been a while since I recall seeing anything from the truly indy space.
Bundle of Holding - I am ashamed how much I've spent on BoH bundles. On the other hand, they are probably the ones that I have been most engaged by. Unlike the other two bundlers, BoH delivers role playing games almost exclusively. The exceptions that I can point to directly, are the November 2017 bundle from Stone Skin Press being fiction anthologies and a webcomic (?) compilation, Phil Foglio's Girl Genius comics, novels, et al, Glen Cook fiction, multiple digital game maps for dungeons, combat encounters, etc, and paper craft collections. RPGs and very much RPG adjacent material. Every purchase is available from your own download page and BoH very often partners with lesser known and indy producers. Occasionally they will repeat bundles from previous years, have features flash sales of products at a fixed price, as well as selling entry level bundles of some games continually through the Store section of the site.
Story Bundle - Provides DRM free fiction and, usually around November of every year, non-fiction on writing craft and professional development for writers, in the name of NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. Although quite often I don't recognize any of the authors, despite my voracious reading appetites, I'm not constantly reading. I have discovered many established as well as up-and-coming authors through this site. My particular favourites are anything that includes a short story anthology, which allows me to explore a variety of authors' styles, imaginations, and the worlds they paint. My absolute favourites have been the The Afrofuturism Bundle (2019), The Best of Rudy Rucker (2022), The 2016 NaNoWriMo Writing Tools Bundle (2016, obviously), The Truly Epic Fantasy Bundle2016 (yes, 2016) and The Aurora Award Bundle 2 (2017). But I'm into sci-fi and fantasy and developing my own writing craft. The site has bundles that cater to every reader's interests. I've only slacked off because I'm certain I can't finish reading everything I already have in my remaining decades (hopefully) of life.
Stallman, Richard The Right to Read
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