Reading is a recent development for me in the grand scheme of things, dyslexia meant I was hindered till I was about 18, picking up my first actual book 1984 at the age of 24.
10 years later I read roughly 3 books a year.
Currently reading Manufacturing Consent and whilst I knew news media is often misleading, to what extent was not clear sadly I now know the extent.
I’d like to have a conversation about Manufacturing Consent and what people have come away with. Other books too like Bullshit Jobs and Ordinary Men were big shift for my world view, so talking about and recommendations of similar books as well please.
There’s always https://www.gutenberg.org/ which is the best of both worlds.
It deals with the “‘buy’ it and keep it” issue, but they only deal with out-of-copyright works, which are usually quite old. Nearly all of what I read will be newer than that.
I’ve read things there. IIRC, my second reading of Journey to the West, one of the “canonical” Chinese novels, was off Project Gutenberg.
googles
Dunno if it was this translation or another:
https://archive.org/details/journeytothewestwuchengen1592/
…but functionally, they’re mostly a complement, rather than a replacement, for commercial works. They kinda fill their own niche.