I’m not much of a reader. I actually enjoy books quite a bit and have read a lot of them, but I have found that it takes a specific set of circumstances for it to occur. Back when I was stuck in an office doing menial data entry tasks 15 years ago? Conducive. If I’m sitting in my gaming chair in front of my $2500 gaming PC setup? Not conducive. I’m also allergic to cluttering up my house further with physical one-and-done objects; the subtle guilt that arises from even thinking of disposing of books is also something I can live without. So, the rise of eBooks and eReaders has helped the situation somewhat.

…aside from the friction that comes from buying a PDF of words. Who does that?

I have heard a lot of good things about the Three-Body Problem series. I’m a fan of sci-fi and philosophical musings – I really enjoyed the entire Foundation series, Ender’s Game series, and so on. If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time though, you understand the problem: parsimony as fuck. So, it looks like the trilogy is $28.78 at basically every online vendor, including Amazon. However, Amazon is selling the first book for $11.99 and the 2nd and 3rd for $5.99 apiece. Shit like that really starts to make you question the subjective value of particular arrangement of words.

So, I then start looking up local libraries in my area. As it turns out, a lot of libraries will loan you eBooks for free, and you can even sign up for a library card without stepping foot in the physical space. Top-tier Millennial innovations, let me tell you. Of course, predictably, this means that the two electronic versions of the books are already checked out and behind a 200+ waitlist of people who probably subsequently went directly to Pirate Bay.

That actually was my Go-To move in past, but I’ve been out of the skull-and-crossbones game too long and the scene moved on without me. I mean, I can figure out VPNs and Plex servers and Usenet groups… but I just don’t want to. No longer do I have near-infinite time with near-zero responsibility. Clearly, all that time is better spent doing an absurd amount of shopping to save a number dollars no longer enough to purchase lunch.

The end result was this: nothing. I gave up and read nothing.

Great story, right? If you could Paypal me $11.99, I’ll be right on my way.

Actually, what will probably occur is that I go to Google Play and spend the $10ish and change I have earned doing random surveys to purchase the first book, then buy the two $6 sequels from Amazon, and then hope they all work on my Kindle Paperwhite. Where they will likely stay dormant until/unless I find myself away from the house and any parental or driving responsibility for a substantial amount of time. Then, I might actually get to reading something again.

It’s a tough life I lead, I know, full of adversity.

[Fake Edit] Don’t worry, after browsing some older folders, I apparently already “acquired” the Three-Body Problem series back in 2021. Now, to read them. Some day.