nothing feels as good as starting to read again when you haven’t held a book in your hand for such a long time and now the setting sun is in your room and there’s paper under your fingers and you feel so good about letting the words float into you again
Although I prefer the taste of coffee, I just love the aesthetics of tea. Also, I want to read classics and would really appreciate some recommendations!
Something something PRB something
Though i drink at your pool, i burn for you.
ig: fourthepigram
The Beguiled (dir. Sofia Coppola, 2017)
magdalen college in december. take me back to oxford ⭐️
Because I've been drinking it while reading, my coffee tastes like adventure now.
started reading again; mostly re-reading books i’ve enjoyed in the past. coming back and finding out that you love them even more the second time around is good.
If it's ok to watch pirated movies then it should be ok to read pirated books too... Right? If I'm reading and reviewing it for a good cause, I mean I don't have that much money and I don't have a library system nearby either and my only happiness is books
Man, I’m going to get hate for this.
My answer would be no, it shouldn’t be okay to pirate books. Yes, I know it sounds hypocritical. But, imo, you can’t really compare the revenue that comes from Hollywood movies to the revenue that an author makes off their books. The market is different too - look at how many people go to the cinemas, rent movies, purchase them - it’s much, much bigger than the audience for books. They’re different branches of entertainment, one of which caters to a MUCH bigger audience. I mean, there are very few people who have never seen a movie, but there are a lot who have never been interested in reading.
Let’s take Game of Thrones, for example (yes, I know it’s a TV show) - at one point, it was the most pirated tv show in history (i’ve actually done a quick search now and google says it was the most pirated show for like, 6 years running, and season 7 had been pirated more than a billion times, like wtf), millions of people watching it illegally. However, in terms of revenue, the TV show has STILL made 4.5 billion dollars, adding another 250 million from DVD and BluRay sales.
To compare, Maggie’s Stiefvater - arguably one of the most known and successful YA author - almost had the 4th Raven Cycle book cancelled because of piracy. The first 3 books had been pirated so much, to the point where, although the series was very popular, the sales did not reflect this at all, so the publisher was very close to cancelling the 4th book due to insufficient sales. Victoria Schwab - again, one of the most successful authors of her generation - waited 5 years to be able to release the sequel to Vicious, because the book didn’t perform well enough back when it was released in 2013 (as far as I know, her publisher asked for the ending to be sort of an open/close, to be able to be read as a stand alone, yet leave a little door open in case of a sequel).
Book piracy affects authors A LOT MORE than movie/tv show piracy affects Hollywood.
I do understand not being able to afford books or have access to them - I’ve been in that position and I have pirated books as well, years ago, when I didn’t really understand how much the world of publishing in its entirety is affected by this. My point is - try to always exhaust all options before turning to pirating books. Otherwise, we might find ourselves in the position of having no closure to a beloved series, because there just wasn’t enough revenue coming in to justify a continuation in publishing it.
genuine question: do you have thoughts on library sharing? I now have access to a good library system but didn't for a while. I used a friend's account to access books on overdrive/libby. I have no idea how that affects libraries.
I think library sharing is perfectly fine. Authors get a percentage from library rentals or purchases, i’m not sure exactly which ones - maybe someone who is a librarian sees this and can offer some insight. So while you’re not borrowing from the library yourself, you’re borrowing from a friend who borrows from a library, so the author gets a cut. I think it’s similar to borrowing books from a friend - the purchase has been made, the author received the revenue :)
I do wish librarians could chime in on this with more info :) Thank you!
I am not a librarian, but I'm pretty sure that when you rent a book from the library, there's still a record of that. Libraries keep track of how many people rent a certain book, and the publisher has access to that information, so even if it's not a direct revenue stream, it still helps authors.
First of all, if a lot of people check out books by a certain author, the library will buy more copies of that author's books and pre-order copies of their upcoming books, and that's money that goes to the author.
Second of all, publishers look at the number of people who checked out an author's works from the library, and they view those borrowers as potential buyers. The more readers an author has, the more likely the publishers are to continue signing contracts with them (and the bigger the advance they receive).
(I know that libraries also have to pay to renew their rights to lend books, especially e-books, but I don't know if any of that money goes to the author)
Anyway, libraries are important and valuable to both readers and authors, and even if you can't afford to buy books, you should check out your local library. Or if you don't have a library nearby (or if you don't want to go because covid), check to see if there's an online library program that you can register for! A lot of libraries have an online platform where you can rent e-books (and audiobooks, music, movies, newspapers, etc) - it's free, it's convenient, and it's much better than pirating.
Thank you so much for chiming in!!
I work at a library myself. And you can affect a publishers’ and authors’ sales if you order or request a new book or one that your local library doesn’t have yet. My library system buys the books in bulk (as we’re part of a larger network of New York State libraries) and so there’s already extremely new books we have simply because of the online interest as well as in person quiries. Funny enough I know two patrons who have read over 50 books (many of them multiple times) yet they own and have no books at home. I asked them how this was: they’re dirt poor, and they also don’t have the space at home to keep any. So whenever they want to read a book they’re interested in, they come check it out. As many times as they want. All for free.
Thank you so much for the insight!
One real benefit of reading I rarely hear anybody mention is how much more interesting life becomes when you read a lot. It depends what you’re reading, of course, but most (good) books will teach you something you didn’t already know, and even if you have to give the book back to the library, you get to take that much with you. A lot of people talk about things they wish they’d studied in school–I’ve done it, too–but it’s a nice consolation prize that you can always pick up a book and learn something new. And as that library in your brain collects more volumes, everything around you gains new resonances, new context, and new connections which make your lived experience richer. In quarantine alone I’ve read about religion and politics and history and evolution and computer science and astrophysics without even leaving my house and it’s already a more interesting world.
literature is such a powerful tool. we don't talk enough about the impact it can have, the way it shapes us. please, please be selective of what you are reading and don't get stuck in the same circle. read for pleasure, but also to broaden your mind. read books translated from languages you don't know, read authors from countries you've never visited, read books written about your hometown, read ancient literature and science fiction. sample it all and live through it. dare to contain within yourself the whole world.
books?? amazing. paperbacks?? soft, cozy, may fit in your pocket, cheap so you don’t feel bad for taking notes in them. hardcovers??? beautiful, pristine, ground you into the world they hold by making you grip them tighter, the stars of every bookshelf. ebooks?? convenient, cheap, always with you, a vast library that you can hold in your palm. new books?? crisp, the smell of wood, ideas waiting to imprint themselves upon the world. old books?? objects transcending history, sweet smelling, enriched by the hands that stroked their pages. books.
||| Rainy day in the mountains. |||
I love the combination of cottagecore and light academia
